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MEXICO 

AN OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE COUNTRY 

ITS PEOPLE AND THEIR HISTORY 

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 

TO THE PRESENT 

BY 

T. PHILIP TERRY, F.R.G.S. 

AUTHOB OP * terry's MEXICO,' * TERBy's JAPANESE EMPIRE,' ETC. 

With colored Map 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
1914 






BS PROPIEDAD EN MEXICO 

GOPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

BY T. PHILIP TERRY 

1909 

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL 

COPYRIGHT IN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE COUNTRIES 

COVERED BY THE BERNE CONVENTION 

1909 



FOREWORD 

Although Mexico lies contiguous to the United 
States, it is much less accurately known to some than 
its importance warrants. As it, no doubt, is destined 
to bear a closer relation to us in the future than it has 
in the past, it is well that every American should 
know as much as possible about the country and its 
varied aspects. 

Our chief aim in compiling this volume has been to 
present in a compact and inexpensive form, a wealth 
of compressed data relating to the History of Mexico 
and of the many races which inhabit it; and to its 
Physiography (Area, Boundaries, States, Mountains, 
Lakes, Rivers, Gulf of Mexico), Climate, Govern- 
ment, Constitution, Army and Navy, etc. The care- 
fully arranged Chronological Table of the Chief 
Events in Mexican History from the Earliest Times 
to the Present, is uniquely interesting, and it forms 
an epitome of events and dates available for quick 
reference and peculiarly valuable to-day. 

All the foregoing has been taken from the pages of 
Terry^s Guidebook to Mexico^ and the bracketed num- 
bers and references which the reader will note in the 
text of the following pages relate to that volume. 
(See the advertisement at the end of this book.) 

T. P. T. 

HiNGHAM, Mass., June, 1914. 




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Physiography: Area. Boundaries. The Mexican States. 
Government. Army and Navy. Mountains. Lakes. Rivers. 
Gulf of Mexico. 

La Repiiblica Mejicana — often called Old Mexico — ex- 
tends from north latitude 14° 30' to 32° 42', and from 12° 18' 
46" of E. longitude to 18° 6' 15" of longitude W. of the Meri- 
dian of Mexico City, or between 86° 46' 8" and 117° 7' 8" west 
of Greenwich. It is bounded on the N. by the XJ. S. A., on the 
S. by Guatemala, on the E. by the Golfo de Mejico, and on 
the W. by the Pacific Ocean. It has a coast-line of 6000 miles, 
and a superficial area of 1,958,912 sq. kilom., or 766,000 sq. 
miles. Its greatest length, mainly represented by the gigan- 
tic dorsal ridge of the Sierra Madre, is 1,970 M. in a straight 
line from the northwestern extremity of Lower California to 
the southern border of the State of Chiapas. Its maximmn 
breadth, from E. to W. on the hne of N. latitude 26°, is 
about 750 M. and its TniniTTmrnj at the Isthmus of Tehuante- 
pec, 140 miles. 

Within this vast territory are many places replete with in- 
terest. The wonderful ruined palaces of the Peninsula of Yuca- 
tan; the Casas Grandes, or Big Houses, of the State of Chihua- 
hua; the dead cities of Palenque, buried in the fastnesses of the 
almost impenetrable tropic forests of the State of Chiapas, 
and the mute and extraordinarily attractive tombs of the 
vanished Zapotec and Mixtec Indian Kings, of Oaxaca State, 
are as sustainedly interesting as the stupendous pre-Colom- 
bian pyramids of Papantla, Cholula. and San Juan Teotihua- 
can. 

The Rio Grande (big river) represents a part of the dividing 
line between Mexico and the United States, but the unstable 
character of this river, and its persistent efforts to change its 
course, occasion many international discussions. New Spain 
once included all the territory lying between N. latitude 15° 
and 42° ; by the treaty between Spain and the XJ. S. A. (Feb. 
22, 1819) the northern boundary was placed at the mouth 
of the Sabine River, in Texas ; by the Treaty of Guadalupe, 
Feb. 2, 1848, the dividing line was fixed at the Rio Gramie. 
Prior to this treaty the area of Mexico was 1,650,000 sq. miles, 
but the U. S. A. gained over half this territory and an addi- 
tional 100,000 sq. miles. By the " Gadsden Purchase " Conven- 
tion (1853) the U. S. A. secured a further addition of 45,535 



2 AREA 

sq. miles. Mexico stands fourth, on the American continent, 
in its possession of territory, being somewhat smaller than the 
tr. S. A. (including the Dominion of Canada), Brazil, and 
the Argentine Republic. 

The main body of the Mexican Territory is a vast table- 
land, a distinct geographical region, traversed by extensive 
mountain chains of remarkable heights. These mountains 
{Sierra Madre or Mother Range), a continuation of the Cordil- 
lera of South America, trend northwesterly from the Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec and have but a moderate elevation in the 
southern States of Chiapas and Oaxaca. But farther north 
the mean altitude is 9,000 ft. above sea-level, and two peaks, 
Popocatepetl and Orizaba, rise to great elevations: the latter 
forms the culminating point of Mexico. At the 21st parallel 
the Cordillera becomes very wide, and divides itself into three 
ranges. The eastern branch runs to Saltillo and Monterey; 
the western traverses the States of Jalisco and Sinaloa, and 
subsides in northern Sonora; while the central ridge extends 
through the States of Durango and Chihuahua, forming the 
water-shed of the northern table-land. The range decreases 
in elevation going northward. In these cross-ridges (due to 
igneous action), thrown out from the longitudinal system, are 
many volcanoes; nine exceeding 10,000 ft. and twenty or 
more rising above 4,000 ft. (comp. mts. and altitudes). 

The great plateau (mesa) is about 1,500 M. in length, by 530 
in breadth, with a mean height of 6,000 ft. above the sea- 
level : it is known as La Mesa Central de Andhuac, and it is 
widest in the latitude of Mex. City. The surface is cut up into 
numerous barrancas (ravines), some of great depth. Two passes 
afford outlets to the eastward; one at Jalapa, now traversed by 
the Interoceanic Rly., and through which Cortes built a road 
during the Conquest: and one at Saltillo, at present utilized by 
the National Rlys. Through this pass the American soldiers 
climbed to the plateau during the Mexican War. The central 
plateau is subdivided into four minor mesas: Toluca, with a 
mean elevation of 8,570 ft. ; Actdpan, with a mean of 6,450 ft.; 
Ixtla, 3,320, and the Valley of Mexico, 7,470 ft. 

Configuration of the Coast. The Atlantic coast line is 
about 1,600 M. long, and the Pacific (and Gulf of California) 
about 4,200. The eastern coast is extremely fertile. The most 
important ports are Vera Cruz, Tampico, Progreso (in Yuca- 
tan), Campeche, El Carmen, Frontera, Coatzacoalcos (Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec), Tuxpam, and Matamoros. Vera Cruz ranks 
highest, with Tampico next. The western coast is fertile and 
possesses some splendid harbors. Chief among them are Aca- 
pulco and Guaymas; the latter, according to Mex. geographers, 
one of the safest harbors on the globe. Manzanillo is of consid- 



BOUNDARIES 3 

erable importance, and Salina Cruz, the Pacific terminus of the 
Isthmian Route, is perhaps destined to become as celebrated 
as Port Said. Pacific coast ports of minor importance are 
Agiabampo, Topolobampo, Altata, San Bias, Las Penas, Cha- 
mela, Zihuatanejo, Puerto Angel, Tonala, and San Benito. The 
Pacific coast is healthier than the Atlantic. The country con- 
tiguous to both is low ; but the land rises gradually toward the in- 
terior. The flat region of the eastern tierra caliente has an average 
breadth of 65 M. : that of the western varies from 40 to 70 M. 
Earthquakes (terremotos, temblores) are somewhat frequent. 

"We are accustomed to consider Mexico as lying entirely 
south of the United States, and as entirely hot and tropical; 
but nearly one half of the area is north of the southernmost 
pointsjof the U. S. A. Furthermore, one half of its area, even 
much of that extending into the tropics, is cool and temperate. 

" Mexico lies at the meeting-place of two zones, — the tem- 
perate and the torrid; and from its geographical position, 
combined with its varying altitudes, possesses a greater vari- 
ety of soil, surface, and vegetation than any equal extent of 
contiguous territory in the world. Basking in the sunshine of 
the tropics, her head pillowed in the lap of the North, her feet 
resting at the gateway of the continents, her snowy bosom 
rising to the clouds, she rests serene in the majesty of her 
might. She guards vast treasures of gold and silver, emeralds 
and opals adorn her brow, while the hem of her royal robe, 
dipped in the seas of two hemispheres, is embroidered with 
pearls and the riches of ocean. 

"Mother of Western civiHzationI cradle of the American 
race! a thousand years have been gathered into the sheaf of 
time since her first cities were bmlt. When the Norsemen 
coasted our northern shores, she had towns and villages, and 
white-walled temples and palaces. When the Pilgrims landed 
on Plymouth Rock, a hundred years had already passed since 
the soldiers of Cortes had battled with the hosts of Montezuma. 
In no country in the world can you pass so rapidly from zone 
to zone, — from the blazing shores of the heated tropics to 
the region of perpetual winter, from the land of the palm and 
vine to that of the pine and lichen, — for in 12 hours this can 
be accomplished, and the traveller may ascend a snow-peak 
with the sands of the shore still upon tas shoes." {Travels in 
Mexico, F. A. Ober.) 



1 THE MEXICAN STATES 

STATES AND TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED MEXICAN 

STATES 

iEstados y Territorios de loa Estadoa Unidoa Mexicanos.) 

States and T. Abbreviations Area in sq. kildm. Pop, 

7,644 105,000 

46,855 86,542 

70,624 360,599 

227,468 327,800 

161,550 297,000 

6,587 66,120 

98,470 370,294 

29,458 1,061,724 

64,756 479,205 

23,101 605,000 

82,603 1,153,891 

23,957 934,463 

62,261 931,000 

7,184 160,500 

62,998 400,000 

91,664 986,000 

31,616 1,150,000 

9,215 232,389 

65,586 600,000 

87,231 296,701 

199,244 221,682 

26,094 160,000 

84,394 218,948 

4,132 172,315 

75,651 981,030 

91,201 314,087 

63,388 462,190 

151,109 47,624 

29,211 150,098 

1,200 600,000 

For the purposes of civil administration the Mexican Re- 
public is divided into a Federal District, 27 States and 2 
Territories, known as the Estados Unidos Mexicanos. The 
States are free and sovereign in all matters pertaining to their 
internal administration, their government being vested in 
the State Government, State Legislature, and State Judicial 
Power. For convenience the States and Territories are classi- 
fied as follows, according to their situation : — 

Central States: Federal District, Aguascalientes, Du- 
rango, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Mexico, Morelos, Puebla, Quer6- 
taro, San Luis Potosi, Tlaxcala, and Zacatecas, with an area 
of 372,480 sq. kilometres. 

Gulf States: Campeche, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, 
Yucatan, and its adjacent Territorio of Quintana Roo, 323,610 
sq, kilom. 

Northern States: Chihuahua (largest, with an area of 
nearly 90,000 sq. miles), Coahuila (which once comprised 
Texas), Nuevo Leon, and Sonora, with 658,032 sq. kilom. 

Pacific States: Colima, Chiapas, Guerrero, Jalisco, 
Michoacan, Oaxaca, Sinaloa, with the territories of Baja 



1. Aguascalientes 


Ags. 


2. Campeche 


Camp. 


3. Chiapas 


Chis. 


4. Chihuahua 


Chi. 


6. Coahuila 


Coah. 


6. Colima 


Col. 


7. Durango 


Dgo. 


8. Guanajuato 


Gto. 


9. Guerrero 


Gro. 


10. Hidalgo 


Hgo. 


11. Jalisco 


Jal. 


12. Mexico 


Mex. 


13. Michoacan 


Mich. 


14. Morelos 


Mor. 


16. Nuevo Leon 


N. L. 


16. Oaxaca 


Oax. 


17. Puebla 


Pueb. 


18. Quer^taro 


Qro. 


19. San Luis PotosI 


S. L. P. 


20. Sinaloa 


Sin. 


21. Sonora 


Son. 


22. Tabasco 


Tab. 


23. Tamaulipas 


Tarn. 


24. Tlaxcala 


Tlax. 


25. Vera Cruz 


V. C. (also Ver.) 


26. Yucatan 


Yuc. 


27. Zacatecas 


Zac. 


28. Territorio de Baja 




California 


B.C. 


29. Territorio de Tepio 


Tepio 


30. Distrito Federal 


D. F. 



GOVERNMENT 5 

(Lower) California, and Tepic; the combined area measuring 
629,037 sq. kUom. ^ 

These vast possessions represent the most highly mineral- 
ized region on the globe. In some of the States, three harvests 
are annually secured. There are 52 varieties of mammal 
quadrupeds, 203 varieties of fowls, 50 kinds of humming-birds, 
353 species of birds, 77,000 (catalogued) coleoptera, 43 classes 
of reptiles, 13 batrachians, and a greater variety of plant 
life than is known to exist in any other country. For de- 
tailed information referring to the above States and Terri- 
tories, consult the different headings in the Handbook. 

The present Constitution of Mexico, promulgated Feb. 5, 
1857, and^ subsequently amended, declares that the Mexican 
Republic is established under the representative, democratic, 
and federal form of government, composed of states free and 
sovereign in everything relatmg to their internal administra- 
tion, but united in one single federation in accordance with 
the principles set forth in the said Constitution. The Su- 
preme Government is divided into three coordinate branches: 
Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The legislative power 
of the nation is vested in a general Congress, consisting of 
two Chambers, the Deputies, and the Senate. The Chamber 
of Deputies is composed of representatives of the nation 
elected every two years by the Mexican citizens and in the 
proportion of one Deputy for every 40,000 inhabitants, or 
fraction over 20,000, the term of service being two years. 
The requisite qualifications are similar to those of other 
countries. The Senate consists of two Senators for each State 
and the Federal District, chosen in the same manner as the 
Deputies, and subject to certain limitations of age, etc. 

The Congress has two ordinary sessions annually — the 
first, which may be extended 30 days, beginning on Sept. 
16 (the great national holiday) and ending on Dec. 15, and 
the second, which may be prorogued for 15 days, convening 
on the 1st of April and adjourning on the last day of May. 

The Executive Power is lodged in a single individual, known 
as the President (presidente) of the United Mexican States, 
with a salary of $50,000 a year. There is also a Vice-President. 

The Presidente is elected indirectly by electors chosen by 
the people. His term of office is six years (law of May 6, 
1904), commencing on the 1st day of Dec. after election. By 
an amendment to the Constitution, under date of Dec. 20, 
1890, he may be reelected indefinitely. 

The judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court of Jus- 
tice and the District and Circuit Courts. The Government of 
the States is divided into the same branches as the General 
Government. The States are divided poKtically, as a rule, 
mto districts governed by a jefe politico, or a prefect, who is 



6 MOUNTAINS — LAKES 

responsible to the governor — gobernador. The minor divi- 
sions are munici'palidades; the local authority being an ayurt" 
tamiento, corresponding to the town council in the U. S. A. 
The main clauses of the Constitution, with respect to the 
rights of men, are similar to those of other advanced coun- 
tries. Aliens enjoy the civil rights belonging to Mexicans, but 
they can be expelled (Article 33) from the country if they 
prove to be pernicious to the Government. 

Mexico has a small navy, and an effective army of about 
40,000 men. The normal revenue of the Government is about 
100 million pesos ; the expenditures amounting to about 93 
millions. The national debt is about $380,000,000. Mexico's 
foreign credit is high. 

The Army (ejercito) is composed of regular and auxiliary 
troops of the reserve; the strength of the former is fixed by 
law at 30,000 men, that of the reserve at 28,000, and that of 
the second reserve at 150,000. The infantry is armed with 
Mauser rifles of the pattern of 1901, 7mm. calibre, and with 
"Porfirio Diaz" rifles; the cavalry with carbines of the same 
pattern. Schneider rapid-fire mounted guns are used. The ef- 
fective strength of the army in time of war is given at 3,500 
ofiicers, 120,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, and 6,000 artillery. 
At present the regular army establishment is made up of 
sections quartered at different points in the Republic. 

The Navy (marina de guerra) is modest, and was established 
simply to meet the requirements of coast patrol necessary to 
a country at peace with all. The personnel of the navy con- 
sists of some 150 oflScers and about 350 men. 

Mexico is a land of High Mountains ; it is estimated that 
there are 156 mts. of a volcanic character scattered through 
the mt. ranges of the Repub. The following are the highest: 

Name Height States 

Orizaba or Citlaltepetl (p. 496) 

Popocatepetl (p. 463) 

Iztaccihuatl (p. 464) 

Xinantecatl, or Nevado de Toluca (p. 199) 

Matlalcueyatl, or Malintzi (p. 497) 

Ajusco (p. 434) 

Nauchampatepetl (p. 504) 

Volcan de Colima (p. 186) 

Pico de Tancltaro (p. 224) 

Cerro de Patamban (p. 224) 

Zempoaltepetl (p. 541) 

Los Llanitos (p. 145) 

Pico de Quinceo (p. 224) 

Gigante (p. 145) 

Lakes. There are many lakes {lagos) in Mexico, and most of 
them are high among the mountains or on the great central 
plateau. As a rule they are beautiful sheets of water, amid at- 



18,225 


Vera Cruz 


17,782 


Mexico 


16,060 


Mexico and Puebla 


15,000 


Mexico 


14,740 


TIaxcaJa 


13,612 


Federal District 


13,403 


Vera Cruz 


12,782 


Jalisco 


12.653 


Michoacan 


12,290 


" 


11,965 


Oaxaca 


11,013 


Guanajuato 


10,835 


Michoacan 


10.653 


Guanajuato 



GULF OF MEXICO 7 

tractive surroundings. The chief lakes are Chapala; Patzcuaro: 
Cuitzeo; Texcoco; Zirahuen; Yuririapdndaro; Zipimeo ana 
Tecacho; and the Laguna de los Caimanes. 

Very few bays indent the coast. Among these are Ascen- 
sidn, Espiritu Santo, and Chetmul, on the Yucatan Peninsula; 
Manzanillo, on the Pacific; and Magdalena and others in 
Lower CaHfomia. The east coast is broken by extensive la- 
goons {lagunas) hke that of Terminos m Gampeche State. 
The great Gulf of Ccdifornia separates the peninsula of that 
name from the main portion of Mexico. The only peninsulas 
are Lower California and Yucatan. Some islands of minor 
importance lie off the coasts. 

^ The Mexican River System is neither varied nor extens- 
ive. The rugged configuration of the country converts most 
of the rivers into impetuous torrents, which quickly drain the 
surface of the table-land and form innumerable waterfalls as 
they plunge downward to the tierra caliente, on their way to 
the sea. Even the longest rivers are navigable for but a short 
distance. Shallow draught steamboats ply inland on some of 
the southern rivers — the Usumacinta, the Coatzacoalcos, etc. 
Sand-bars obstruct the mouths of nearly all the rivers empty- 
ing into the ocean, and over these bars but three or four feet of 
water is found at low tide. The best known river (1,644 M. 
long) is the Rio Grande del Norte, which forms a part of the 
boundary-line between Mexico and the United States. 

The Gulf of (Golfo de) Mexico, an arm of the Atlantic 
Ocean, is bounded on the N. by the United States and on the 
S. and W. by Mexico. It is oval in form: its greatest length is 
from E. to W., about 1,000 miles; from N. to S., about 800 M.; 
area about 700,000 sq. M. It has a continuous coast-line of 
about 3,000 M. Its maximum depth is about 12,715 ft., and 
within the basin, exclusive of the submerged coastal plain, the 
average depth is about 9,000 ft. The outlet of the Gulf is on 
the E. between the peninsulas of Yucatan and Florida, a dis- 
tance of about 400 M. The Yucatan channel opens into the 
Caribbean Sea, and the Florida Strait enters the Atlantic. 

The temperature of the Gulf is from 8° to 9° higher than in 
the Atlantic in the same latitude. The temperature at the 
point of greatest depth is 39^° C. The chief current is the 
Gulf Stream (a name appHed to it by Benjamin Franldin), 
which enters the Gulf through the Yucatan Channel, circles 
the interior, and passes out through the Florida Strait. The 
basin off the Mexican coast sinks rapidly to the submarine 
plain, and a short distance from the shore reaches the maxi- 
mum depth. The Bay of Campeche is the largest indenta- 
tion. The level of the Gulf is thought to be a trifle higher than 
that of the Atlantic Ocean, which may account for the great 
velocity of the stream (from 60 to 120 miles per day), one of 
the strongest on record. 



8 POPULATION 

' Health. Mexico is as healthy as any country similarly 
situated. The table-land, or Central Plateau, is unusually 
salubrious, and the natives sometimes reach an extreme old 
age. The intelligent traveller always takes certain precautions 
to guard against diseases prevalent where sanitary devices and 
hygienic methods are lacking, and similar measxu-es should be 
adopted while in certain of the Mexican towns — chiefly in the 
hot lowlands. The one-time great scourges of tropical Mexico, 
yellow fever (fiehre amarillo) and cholera {cdlera), have been 
permanently eradicated, but some of the coastal towns are not 
always free from malaria (calenturas, malaria) and typhoid 
(fiehre tifoidea). Typhus (tifo) is sometimes niet with, land is 
usually traceable to indiscreet eating or drinking. 



Population. 

Population. The population of the Mexican Republic is 
about 15,000,000, almost equally divided between males and 
females. Of these, more than 8,000,000 who have reached 
their majority can neither read nor write. The census of 1900 
recorded 8,000 persons over 90 years of age, and 700 over 100 
years, out of the (then) total population of 13,605,819. There 
are 12,000,000 of Catholics, of whom about 3,000 are priests. 
Some 70,000 persons profess no religious belief, and 50,000 
or more are divided among the ten different beliefs (with 277 
ministers) from Protestant to Mahommedan, thence to Con- 
fucianism and Buddhism. The two latter beliefs (with Tao- 
ism) are professed by most of the ten thousand Chinese in the 
Republic, while the Japanese, of whom there are some 8,000, 
are mostly Shintoists. Of the total population 19% are of 
pure, or nearly pure, white race; 43% of mixed, and 38% of 
Indian race (comp. Language, p. xvi). Of the mixed Indian 
races only a small portion can be regarded as civilized. They 
are slowly but surely merging their identity with that of their 
neighbors; their national life is almost gone, child mortality 
among them is distressingly high — albeit the women are 
" much addicted to maternity " — and their customs — which 
are not distinguished for pulchritude — aid in their oblitera- 
tion. 

The Indians of Mexico enjoy all the political and civil rights 
of born Mexicans; but they exercise little influence on the 
government and destiny of the nation. Special laws for their 
protection are features of the Mexican code. There is little or 
no anti-foreign spirit among them. Some of the Indian women 
— not all of whom could be accused of extreme cleanliness — 
are very handsome, with large, soft, dark eyes and good fea* 
tures. 



POPULATION 

The foreign population includes the natives of forty or more 
countries and numbers over 100,000; of whom there are 30,000 
Americans (who are in the majority), 20,000 Spaniards, and 
about 5,000 British. (American capital to the value of about 
$800,000,000 (gold) is invested in the Republic, and the Eng- 
lish interests are enormous.) About 15,000 Americans and 
3,000 or more British (including Canadians) dwell in Mexico 
City. This number is on the increase. 

" The Mexican of to-day has the blood of more races in his 
veins than any other American. Iberian, Semite, Hamite, 
Goth and Vandal, Roman and Celt, mingled their blood in that 
stream of brave and adventurous men who first set eyes on 
Yucatan in 1517, and who conquered Mexico in 1522. Like 
Spain from the remotest time, Mexico soon became the meet- 
ing-ground of races, of peoples, of languages, and of religion. 
Within the area of its original territory there were more fami- 
lies of native languages than in all the Western Hemisphere 
besides; and, to complete the chain, there were more kinds 
and grades of cultm^e there.^ The Seri Indians, of Sonora 
(p. 80), are as abject as the Fuegians, while the Nahuatl and 
Mai/a-speaking tribes of the Valle;7of Mexico and of Yucatan 
occupied the most elevated position for culture in the New 
World. 

"The origin of the Mexican aborigines is involved in that of 
the American Indians, since within the present boundaries 
of the Republic are gathered representatives of every zone 
from the Apache, an Athapascan, whose principal home is in 
Alaska, to the tribes of Oaxaca and Chiapas, who are the chil- 
dren of a torrid clime. There are now in Mexico perhaps ten 
times more Indians than were ever at any time within the 
United States domain." 

The linguistic families in Mexico are as follows : 

Nahuatlan, 1,750,000. The tribes of this stock are found 
in almost unbroken continuity from Sinaloa along the Pacific 
slope to the border line of Guatemala. In the Valley of Mexico 
they occupied three districts, Tezcuco, Tlacdpan, and the an- 
cient city of Mexico. This family — known as Aztec, or Mexi- 
can — holds the most prominent position in the history of the 
Conquest. 

PiMAN, 85,000. The Opata-Pima of the later Mexican au- 
thorities occupy the western northern States, as far south as 
Guadalajara, lying along the Gulf of California, except where 
they are cut off by the Seri, but they do not anywhere ap- 
proach the ocean, being intercepted by the Nahuatlan tribes. 
This stock now occupies the site of the Casas Grandes (p. 54) 
and other adobe ruins, and it is reasonable to suppose that 
their ancestors were the builders and inhabitants of many 

» Otis T. Mason i Mexico. International Bureau of American Repub- 
lics, Washington. 



10 POPULATION 

ancient pueblos and cliff sites, both in Arizona and northern 
Mexico. The Tarahumares (p. 57) belong to this family. 

YuMAN, 2,500. The lees of a great tribe which once inhab- 
ited the California peninsula. 

Serian, 200. Dwell in the State of Sonora (p. 80) and on 
Tiburon Island (p. 80) off the coast. 

Tarascan, 250,000. Inhabitants of Michoacan, Guerrero, 
and Jalisco. (Comp. p. 181.) 

ZoQUEAN, 60,000. Oaxaca chiefly; also Guerrero and 
Puebla. Some few dwell in Chiapas and Tabasco, between 
the Mayan and Zapotecan tribes. Little is known of their 
origin, save a tradition of their having come from the South. 

ToTONACAN, 90,000. N. part of Puebla and Vera Cruz; 
their ancestors were the first natives encountered by Cortes. 

Zapotecan, 580,000. Chiefly in Oaxaca; also in Guerrero 
and Puebla. The ruins of Mitla (described at p. 534) are 
within their territory, with their wonderful artificial hills, 
stone buildings, fretworks in cut stones, colimins, and wall 
paintings. Benito Pablo Juarez (p. 338) was a Zapotec Indian. 

Otomian, 709,734. A widely spoken language formerly. 
The tribes were among the earliest in the Valley of Mexico, 
and they spread themselves over the States of Guanajuato, 
Hidalgo, Quer^taro (their special habitat), San Luis Potosf, 
and Michoacan. They are often called Serranos (mountaineers) 
because of their fondness for hilly country. 

Mayan, 400,000. Yucatan, Chiapas, and Vera Cruz. The 
advance guard of New World progress. Scholars have conse- 
crated their lives worthily to the Maya civilization. To the 
Mayas are assigned the wonderful ruins of Palenque, in Chia- 
pas, described at p. 567 ; of Copan, in Honduras, and of Ux- 
mal (p. 580) and Chichen-Itza (p. 581), in Yucatan. The 
42,000 Haustecas, of Vera Cruz, are of this family. 

Tequistlatecan, 31,000. A nondescript tribe dwelling, 
under various names, in Oaxaca. 

HuAVAN, of which there are 5,000, dwell in Chiapas. 

Athapascan (Apaches), 8,000, in northern Chihuahua, and 
the southwest of the U. S. A. 

The above families are widely subdivided and as widely 
scattered. 

For further information under this head consult Mexico, 
International Bureau of the American Republics, Govern- 
ment Printing Office, Washington, pp. 24 et seq. ; Native 
Races, by Hubert Howe Bancroft, San Francisco, 1883. 



CLIMATE 11 

Climate. The odd physical configuration of Mexico gives it 
many temperatures and three distinct climates, all, curiously 
enough, within a very few hours' ride of one another. 

The relaxing tierra caliente (hot land) begins at the sea- 
coast and extends inward and upward to an altitude of about 
3,000 ft., where the air is usually delightful, with a yearly 
average temperature of 80°-88° Fahr. and an extreme of 100°- 
105°. The best-known towns lying along this littoral are 
Merida (p. 574), Vera Cruz (p. 469), Campeche (p. 569), and 
Tampico, on the Gulf, and Guaymas (p. 78), Mazatlan (p. 90), 
Manzanillo (p. 188), Acapulco (p. 460), and Salina Cruzon the 
Pacific. The winter climate (Dec.-Feb.) of these places is ad- 
mirable — like early May days in the Central U. S. A. — but 
broken, at intervals, by furious nortes (p. 471) , which lower the 
temperature and chill the marrow of the thin-blooded inhab- 
itants. Oddly enough, the summer ' ' dog-days " {caniculares) in 
Vera Cruz or Guaymas never scorch or stew one as do the 
"sizzards" of New York. The cool land breeze which blows 
seaward in the a. m. and returns at nightfall laden with salted 
ozone and coolness makes life in tropical, white-clad Vera 
Cruz, for example, with its palms and balconies and long mid- 
day siestas, far more supportable than in New York with its 
houses like huge furnaces and its heat-radiating streets. 

The tierra templada (temperate land) lies between 3,200 and 
6,500 ft., with an average all the year temperature of 73°-77° 
Pahr. ; the variation during a season may not be more than 6° 
or 8°. The finest of the Mexican climates is found between 
these elevations. The immunity from heavy frosts is as com- 
plete as that from extreme humidity, noxious insects, and 
sudden temperature changes. Dryness is the emphatic qual- 
ity, with freedom in the dry season (Oct.-May) from malaria 
and a perpetual exemption from the keen, cold winds of the 
higher altitudes and the hygienic deficiencies of the .maritime 
regions. Semi-tropical products thrive side by side with those 
of the tropics, and there are farms where wheat and sugar- 
cane grow almost within touch of each other. Certain of the 
towns in this favored zone are natural, open-air sanitariums, 
and the warm, still days and cool, sleepful nights are tonics 
which bring many a sufferer (particularly from tuberculosis) 
back to health. One of these health stations is Guadalajara 
(p. 161), with an almost perfect climate aptly described as 
"June with October touches." Other towns in this land of 
eternal spring, noted for a climate particularly suited to in- 
valids fearsome of quick temperature changes, are Orizaba 
(p. 489), Oaxaca (p. 528), Cuauhtla (p. 466), Cuernavaca (p. 
436), etc. The latter place is celebrated for its attractive 
hotels ; as being one of the most favored winter stations north 
of the Equator ; and for some of the finest views in the Repub- 
lia It is unusually free from cold waves {ondasfrias) and from 



12 CLIMATE 

brusque climatic changes. The gradation of the seasons is so 
gentle that the trees take on their new spring leaves while 
still green with the verdure of the old year. 

The tierra fria (cold country) — cold only in comparison to 
the heat at the coast — rises above the 6,500 ft. level and ex- 
tends to snow-line (12,460 ft. in the tropics); above this the 
thermometer often sinks below freezing-point. The average 
temperature of the alleged tierra fria is 59°-62° Fahr. with 
slight changes except in winter, when a norte may bring a 
light snowfall to Mexico City and topple the mercury down to 
30° or 40°. In Toluca and the high mountain towns, the ther- 
mometer has been known to register 20°. The rainfall in this 
region is only one fifth as much as that of the temperate zone. 
In the sunny pockets and sheltered valleys of the tierra fria 
the vegetation is often quite luxuriant. 

Plants will grow on the southern side of a mountain which 
has snow on the opposite side. The sky over all the zones is 
noted for its unrivalled blue, and on any winter day he who 
Beeks the sun in the morning will seek the shadows at noon. 
From the elevated mountain peaks one may look down past 
the temperate to the torrid zone ; from the frozen cone of some 
volcano to the warm waters of the Gulf, embracing in one view 
all that class of vegetation which thrives between the Arctic 
Ocean and the Equator. 

The climate of Mexico City is usually mild, but exhilarat- 
ing; ranging during the year from 35° to 75° Fahr. with a 
mean temperature of 65°. Excepting in the winter, its great- 
est variations are generally between day and night on the 
Bame day. The tropical heat of the latitude is tempered by 
the altitude. Throughout the year the nights are delightfully 
cool, and a pair of heavy blankets are always requisite to com- 
fortable sleep. During the short winter (Dec- Feb.) the tem- 
perature is apt to be affected by the northers which blow 
down the Gulf. These monsoons of the western hemisphere 
sometimes precipitate light snowfalls or hail-storms in the 
capital, but the snow vanishes with the first touch of sunshine. 
Rarely a winter day passes without some sunshine, and then 
one instinctively seeks the shady side of the street. 

The altitude is unsuitable for snakes, scorpions, and similar 
reptilia. It affects culinary operations, and recipes which give 
good results at sea-level have to be adjusted to suit the ele- 
vation. Food values decrease by one-third, it is said. 



HISTORY AND RACES 13 

History and Races. 

The authentic History of Mexico practically begins for us 
Adth the advent of the bold Castilian free lances who under 
the Great Captain, Hernan Cort^z, came so jauntily to the New 
World in search of militant adventure in the dim twilight of 
our time. Although these iron-willed men began at once to 
enact one of the most enthralling historical dramas that can 
be found in the annals of any country, accompanying them 
were certain religious bigots who made their own names as 
infamous and as unforgettable as the Spanish cavaliers, by 
deeds of appealing heroism, made theirs forever renowned. 
Blindly superstitious, and confessedly intolerant of the intel- 
lectual advancement which characterized the civilization dis- 
covered by the Spaniards in the Valley of Mexico, such men 
as Father Landa, the historian of the Spanish invasion of 
Yucatan, and Juan de Zumdrraga, the first Bishop of Mexico, 
assembled all the Maya and Nahuatl picture-writings, manu- 
scripts, books on medicine, astronomy, chronology, geology, 
and theology, piled them high in the market-place of the dif- 
ferent Indian strongholds, and reduced them all to ashes. 

At the time of the arrival of the Iberians great quantities 
of manuscripts were treasm-ed up in the national archives of 
Tezcuco, in Andhuac, for this centre was one of the most cul- 
tivated capitals of the great Indian Confederacy. Numerous 
persons were employed in picture-writing and in the making 
of books and codices, and the dexterity of their operations ex- 
cited the astonishment of the Spaniards. Unfortunately this 
was mingled with other and unworthy feelings. The strange, 
unknown characters on them excited suspicion. They were 
looked on as magic scrolls, and were regarded in the same light 
with the idols and temples, as symbols of a pestilent supersti- 
tion that must be extirpated. Their destruction was an irre- 
parable loss which mere words fail to express, for with the In- 
dian libraries perished the records of the first Americans. For- 
tunately for posterity suflScient has been learned of the early 
races to convince one that "of all that extensive empire which 
once acknowledged the authority of Spain in the New World, 
no portion, for interest and importance, can be compared with 
Mexico: and this equally, whether we consider the variety 
of its soil and climate; the inexhaustible stores of its mineral 
wealth; its scenery, grand and picturesque beyond example; 
the character of its ancient inhabitants, not only far surpass- 
ing in intelligence that of the other North American races, 
but reminding us, by their monuments, of the primitive civili- 
zation of Egypt and Hindustan; or, lastly, the peculiar cir- 
cumstances of its Conquest, adventurous and romantic as any 
legend devised by Norman or Italian bard of chivalry." 
(Prescott.) 
, The merciful hand of Providence has bestowed on the 



14 HISTORY AND RACES 

Mexicans a magnificent land, abounding in resources of all 
V / kinds — a land where none ought to be poor, and where misery 
ought to be unknown — a land whose products and riches of 
every kind are abundant, and as varied as they are rich. 
It is a country endowed to profusion with every gift that 
man can desire or envy; all the metals from gold to lead; 
every sort of climate from perpetual snow to tropical heat, 
and inconceivable fertility. (Lempriere, Notes on Mexico.) 

"The history of ancient Mexico is substantially that of the 
Valley of Mexico {Vale of And^wac), that beautiful spot where 
once beat the heart of the great Aztec Empire. Midway 
across the continent, somewhat nearer the Pacific than the 
Atlantic Ocean, it stands at an elevation of nearly 7,500 ft.; 
oval in form, about 37 leagues in circumference, and encom- 
passed by a towering rampart of porphyritic rock, which 
nature seems to have provided, though ineffectually, to pro- 
tect it from invasion. The soil, once carpeted with a beautiful 
verdure and thickly sprinkled with stately trees, is often bare, 
and, in many places, white with the incrustation of salts 
caused by the draining of the waters. Five lakes once spread 
over the valley, occupying one tenth of its surface. On the 
opposite border of the largest of these basins stood the cities 
of Tenochtitldn and Tezcuco, the capitals of the two most 
potent and flourishing States of Andhuac, whose history, 
with that of the mysterious races that preceded them in the 
country, exhibits some of the nearest approaches to civiliza- 
tion to be met with anciently on the North American con- 
tinent. 

"Of these races the most conspicuous were the Toltecs 
(people of Tollan). Advancing from a northerly direction, 
they entered the territory of Andhuac, probably before the 
close of the seventh century. They established their capital 
at Tula, 50 M. north of the Mexican Valley, and the remains 
of extensive buildings are to be discerned there now. The 
noble ruins of religious and other edifices, still to be seen in 
various parts of Mexico, are referred to this people, whose 
name, Toltec, has passed into a synonym for architect. They 
were well instructed in agriculture and many of the most use- 
ful mechanical arts ; were nice workers of metal ; invented 
the complex arrangement of time adopted by the Aztecs 
(people oi Aztlan), and were the true founders of the civiliza- 
tion which distinguished this part of the continent in later 
times." (Prescott.) 

After a period of four centuries the Toltecs disappeared 
from the land as silently and mysteriously as they had entered 
it. From their legends and their shadowy history the belief has 
been detached that pulque (p. Ixxxii), which was discovered 
by them, caused their downfall and final disappearance. 

After the lapse of another hundred years, a numerous and 



HISTORY AND RACES 15 

rude tribe, called the Chichimecs (people of Chichimecan — 
place of dogs) entered the deserted country from the regions 
of the far North-west.^ " They were speedily followed by other 
races, of higher civilization, perhaps of the same family with 
the Toltecs, whose language they appear to have spoken. The 
most noted of these were the Aztecs, or Mexicans (Mexico), 
and the Acolhuas ('people at the bend of the water'). The 
latter, better known in later times by the name of Tezcucans 
(from their capital, Tezcuco, on the eastern border of the 
Mexican lake), were peculiarly fitted, by their comparatively 
mild religion and manners, for receiving the tincture of civil- 
ization which could be derived from the few Toltecs that 
still remained in the country. This, in their turn, they com- 
municated to the barbarous Chichimecs, a large portion of 
whom became amalgamated with the new settlers as one 
nation. 

"The Mexicans came also from the remote regions of the 
North — the populous hive of nations in the New World — 
and arrived on the borders of Andhuac toward the beginning 
of the 14th cent., some time after the occupation of the land 
by the kindred races. For a long time they did not estabhsh 
themselves in any permanent residence, but continued shifting 
their quarters to different parts of the Mexican Valley. After 
a series of wanderings and adventures they at length halted 
on the south-western border of the principal lake, in the year 
1325. They there beheld, perched on the stem of a prickly 
pear, which shot out from the crevices of a rock that was 
washed by the waves, a royal eagle of extraordinary size and 
beauty, with a serpent in its talons, and his broad wings 
opened to the rising sun. They hailed the auspicious omen, 
announced by an oracle as indicating the site of their future 
city, and laid its foundations by sinking piles into the shallows : 
for the low marshes were half-buried under water. On these 
they erected their light fabrics of reeds and rushes (tules), 
and sought a precarious subsistence from fishing, as well as 
the cultivation of such simple vegetables as they could raise on 
their floating gardens. The place was called Tenochtitldn ^ 
in token of its miraculous origin, though only known to Euro- 
peans by its other name of Mexico, derived from their war- 
god Mexitli." 

a. Montezuma and his Realm. "After a lapse of two 
centuries we find the descendants of these people cemented 
into a strong and partly civilized nation, dwelling in palaces, in 
the midst of a barbaric pomp and splendor allied to the Ori- 
ental or Asiatic. From his palace in Tenochtitldn the King 
Montezuma wielded his sceptre over a wide and populous 

1 It is highly probable that these were Chinese. 

* Tenochtitldn, iTomtetl, stone, tlan, on, and nochtli, cactus, is sup- 
posed also to have been named for the founder of the city, Tenoch. 



16 HISTORY AND RACES 

domain. Many rich cities and villages dotted the Crown 
possessions, and the annual tributes received therefrom com- 
prised cotton dresses and mantles of feather-work, exquisitely 
made ; ornamented armor, vases and plates of gold ; gold-dust, 
bands, and bracelets; crystal, gilt, and varnished jars and 
goblets; bells, arms, and utensils of copper; reams of maguey 
paper; grain, fruits, copal, amber, cochineal, cacao, wild 
animals, and birds, timber, mats, etc. Garrisons were estab- 
lished in the larger cities, and new territory was constantly 
being added to the already extensive domains of the empire. 
Communication was maintained with the remotest parts of 
the country by means of swift couriers. Post-houses were 
established on the great roads, about two leagues distant from 
each other. The courier, bearing his despatches in the form 
of a hieroglyphical painting, ran with them to the first 
station, where they were taken by another messenger and 
carried forward to the next, and so on until they reached the 
capital. Fresh fish was frequently served at Montezuma's 
table in 24 hours from the time it had been taken from the 
Gulf of Mexico, 260 miles from the capital. 

" A vast army was maintained ; the dress of the warriors 
being picturesque and often magnificent. Their bodies were 
covered with a close vest of quilted cotton, so thick as to be 
impenetrable to the light missiles of Indian warfare. This 
garment was so light and serviceable that it was adopted by 
the Spaniards. The wealthier chiefs sometimes wore a cuirass 
made of thin plates of gold and silver. Over it was thrown a 
sure oat of the gorgeous feather-work in which they excelled. 
Their helmets were sometimes of wood, fashioned like the 
heads of wild animals, and sometimes of silver, on the top of 
which waved a panache of variegated plumes, sprinkled with 
precious stones and ornaments of gold. 

"They wore also collars, bracelets, and ear-rings of the same rich ma- 
terials. Their weapons were the deadly maquahuitl and the javelin. The 
style and quality of the dress of the inhabitants of Andhiiac were superior 
to those of the folks along the seacoast. The tilmantli, or cloak, thrown 
over the shoulders and tied around the neck, made of cotton of different 
degrees of fineness, according to the condition of the wearer, and the 
ample sash around the loins, were often wrought in rich and elegant 
figures and edged with a deep fringe or tassel. As the weather grew cool, 
mantles of fur or of the gorgeous feather-work were sometimes substi- 
tuted. The latter combined the advantages of great warmth and beauty. 
The Mexicans had also the art of spinning a fine thread of the hair of the 
rabbit and other animals, which they wove into a delicate web that took 
a permanent dye. 

" The women wore several skirts or petticoats of different lengths, with 
highly ornamented borders, and sometimes over them loose, flowing 
robes, which reached to the ankles. These, also, were made of cotton, for 
the wealthier classes, of a fine texture, prettily embroidered. The Aztec 
women had their faces exposed, and their dark, raven tresses floated 
luxuriantly over their shoulders, revealing features which, although of 
dusky or rather cinnamon hue, were not unfrequently pleasing, whil« 
touched with the serious, even'sad expressioa characteristic of the national 
physiognomy. 



HISTORY AND RACES 17 

" The Palace of Montezuma occupied one side of what is 
now the Plaza Mayor, of the new city. This pile of buildings 
spread over an extent of ground so vast that, as one of the 
conquerors said, ' its terraced roof might have afforded ample 
room for thirty knights to run their courses in a regular 
tourney.' Its interior decorations were gorgeous; its walls 
were covered with fanciful draperies, its roofs inlaid with 
cedar and other odoriferous woods. 

"The tianguiz, or Great Market, was usually the centre 
of animation in ancient Andhuac, and there the customs of the 
people could be best observed. The market-place was sur- 
rounded by deep porticoes, and the several articles had each 
its own quarter allotted to it. According to Cortes, who was 
astonished at the multitudes assembled there, the market- 
place was thrice as large as the celebrated square of Sala- 
manca. Here might be seen cotton piled up in bales, or manu- 
factured into dresses and articles of domestic use, as tapestry, 
curtains, coverlets, and the like. The richly stained and nice 
fabrics reminded Cortes of the silk-market of Granada. There 
was the quarter assigned to the goldsmiths, where the purchaser 
might find various articles of ornament or use formed of the 
precious metals, or curious toys, made in imitation of birds 
and fishes, with scales and feathers alternately of gold and 
silver, and with movable heads and bodies. These fantastic 
little trinkets were often garnished with i)recious stones, and 
showed a patient, puerile ingenuity in their manufacture, like 
that of the Chinese. 

" In this market were met together traders from all parts, 
with the products and manufactures peculiar to their coim- 
tries; the goldsmiths of Azcapotzalco, the potters and jewellers 
of Cholula, the painters of Tezcuco, the stone-cutters of Tena- 
jocan, the hunters of Xilotepec, the fisherrtien of CuitlahuaCy 
the fruiterers of the tierra caliente, the mat and chair makers of 
Quauhtitlan, and the florists of Xochimilco, — all busily engaged 
in recommending their wares and chaffering with purchasers. 

"In an adjoining quarter were collected specimens of 
pottery, coarse and fine, vases of wood elaborately carved, 
varnished or gilt, of curious and sometimes graceful forms. 
There were also hatchets made of copper alloyed with tin, 
which the natives used instead of iron. The soldier found here 
aU the implements of his trade ; the casque fashioned into the 
head of some wild animal, with its grinning defences of teeth, 
and bristling crest dyed with the rich tint of the cochineal ; 
the escaupil or quilted doublet of cotton, the rich surcoat 
of feather-mail, and weapons of all sorts, copper-headed 
lances and arrows, and the broad maquahuitl with its sharp 
blades of itzli (obsidian). Here were razors and mirrors of 
this same hard and poHshed material, which served so many 
of the purposes of steel with the Aztecs. In the square were 



18 HISTORY AND RACES 

also to be found booths occupied by barbers, who used these 
same razors in their vocation. For the Mexicans, contrary 
to the popular and erroneous notions respecting the aborigines 
of the New World, had beards, though scanty ones. Other 
shops and booths were tenanted by apothecaries, well provided 
with drugs, roots, and different medicinal preparations. In 
other places again, blank books or maps for the hieroglyphical 
picture-writing were to be seen, folded together hke fans, 
and made of cotton, skins, or more commonly the fibre of the 
agave, the Aztec papyrus. 

" Animals, both wild and tame, were offered for sale, and 
near them, perhaps, a gang of slaves with collars round their 
necks, intimating they were likewise on sale. The display 
of provisions was also an attractive feature of the great 
tianguiz. There were meats of all kinds, domestic poultry, 
game from the neighboring mountains, fish from the lakes 
and streams, fruits in all the delicious abundance of these 
temperate regions, green vegetables, and the unfailing maize. 
There was many a viand, too, ready dressed, which sent up its 
savory steams provoking the appetite of the idle passenger, 
pastry, bread of the Indian corn (maize), cakes, and confec- 
tionery. Along with these were to be seen cooling or stimulat- 
ing beverages, the spicy foaming chocolatl, with its delicate 
aroma of vanilla, and the inebriating pulque, the fermented 
juice of the aloe. All these commodities, and every stall 
and portico, were set out, or rather smothered, with flowers, 
showing — on a much greater scale, indeed — a taste siroilar 
to that displayed in the modern markets of modern Mexico. 

" The Spaniards often visited the place, and no one states 
the amount of people seen in the tianguiz at less than forty 
thousand. Every fifth day the city swarmed with a motley 
crowd of strangers, not only from the vicinity, but from many 
leagues around ; the causeways were thronged, and the lake 
was darkened by canoes filled with traders flocking to the 
great market. It resembled, indeed, the periodical fairs in 
Europe, not as they exist now, but as they existed in the Mid- 
dle Ages. 

"There were amongst us," says the chronicler Bernal Diaz, 
"soldiers who had been in many parts of the world, — in 
Constantinople and in Rome and through all Italy, — and 
who said that a market-place so large, so well ordered and 
regulated, and so fllled with people, they had never seen." 

The Great Teocalli, in the midst of a vast area (on the 
site of the present cathedral), was one of the "sights" of the 
ancient city. It was constructed by Ahuizotl, who celebrated 
its dedication, in 1486, by a great hecatomb of victims, esti- 
mated at 20,000. It was encompassed by a wall of lime and 
stone, about 8 ft. high, ornamented on the outer side by figures 
of serpents (a common emblem in the sacred sculpture of 



HISTORY AND RACES 19 

Andhuac) raised in relief, which gave it the name of coatepantU, 
or wall of serpents. This wall, which was quadrangular, was 
pierced by huge, battlemented gateways, opening on the 
four principal streets of the capital. Over each of the gates 
was a kind of arsenal, filled with arms and warlike gear. 
Adjoining, were barracks, garrisoned by ten thousand soldiers, 
who served as a sort of niilitary police for the capital, supply- 
ing the emperor with a strong arm in case of timiult or sedition. 

The teocalli itself was a solid pyramidal structiu'e of earth 
and pebbles, coated on the outside with hewn stones. It was 
square, with its sides facing the cardinal points. It was divided 
into five bodies or stories, each one receding so as to be of 
smaller dimensions than that immediately below it. The 
ascent was made by a flight of steps on the outside, which 
reached to the narrow terrace or platform at the base of the 
second story, passing quite round the building, when a second 
stairway led to a similar landing at the base of the third. The 
breadth of this walk was just so much space as was left by 
the retreating story next above it. From this construction 
the visitor was obliged to pass round the whole edifice four 
times in order to reach the top. "This had a most imposing 
effect in the religious ceremonials, when the pompous pro- 
cession of priests with their wild minstrelsy came sweeping 
round the huge sides of the pyramid, as they rose higher and 
liigher, in the presence of gazing multitudes, toward the 
summit. The first object that met the view on reaching the 
summit, was a large block of jasper — the identical sacrificial 
stone now preserved in the National Museum. At the other 
end of the area, which was paved with broad flat stones, were 
two towers or sanctuaries, consisting of three stories, the 
lower one of stone and stucco, the two upper of wood elabor- 
ately carved. In the lower division stood the images of their 
gods ; the apartments above were filled with utensils for their 
religious services, and with the ashes of some of their Aztec 
princes, who had fancied this airy sepulchre. Before each 
sanctuary stood an altar, with that undying fire upon it, the 
extinction of which boded as much evil to the empire as that 
of the Vestal flame would have done in ancient Rome. Here, 
also, was the huge cylindrical driun made of serpents' skins, 
and struck only on extraordinary occasions, when it sent forth 
a melancholy sound that might be heard for miles, — a sound 
of woe in after-times to the Spaniards. 

" From the summit of the teocalli a splendid view of the city 
could be had. Below lay the ancient metropolis spread out 
like a map, with its streets and canals intersecting each other 
at right angles, its terraced roofs blooming like so many 
parterres of flowers. Every place seemed alive with business 
and bustle ; canoes glanced up and down the canals, the streets 
were crowded with people in their gay, picturesque costumes, 



20 HISTORY AND RACES 

while from the market-place a confused hum of many sounds 
and voices rose upon the air. One could distinctly trace the 
symmetrical plan of the city, with its principal avenues issu- 
ing, as it were, from the four gates of the coatepantU, and con- 
necting themselves with the causeways, which formed the 
grand entrances to the capital. This regular and beautiful 
arrangement was imitated in many of the inferior towns, 
where the great roads converged toward the chief teoccdli, or 
cathedral, to a common focus. 

" One could discern the insular position of the metropolis 
bathed on all sides by the salt floods of the Tezcuco, and in 
the distance the clear fresh waters of the Chalco; far beyond 
stretched a wide prospect of fields and waving woods, with 
the burnished walls of many a lofty temple rising high above 
the trees and crowning the distant lull-tops. The view reached 
in an unbroken line to the very base of the circular range of 
mountains, whose frosty peaks glittered as if touched with fire 
in the morning ray; while long, dark wreaths of vapor, roll- 
ing up from the hoary head of Popocatepetl, told that the de- 
stroying element was, indeed, at work in the bosom of the 
beautiful valley. 

" The interiors of the sanctuaries were incrusted on the sides 
with stucco, on which various figures were sculf)tured, repre- 
senting the Mexican calendar and the priestly ritual. At one 
end of the salon was a recess with a roof of timber richly 
carved and gilded. Before the altar stood the colossal image 
of Huitzilopochtli, the tutelary deity and war-god of the Az- 
tecs. His countenance was distorted into hideous lineaments 
of symbolical import. In his right hand he wielded a bow, and in 
his left a bunch of golden arrows, which a mystic legend had 
connected with the victories of his people. The huge folds of 
a serpent, consisting of pearls and precious stones, were coiled 
round his waist, and the same rich materials were profusely 
sprinkled over his person. On his left foot were the delicate 
feathers of the humming-bird, which, singularly enough, gave 
its name to the dread deity. (Comp. p. 303.) 

"One of the sanctuaries was dedicated to a milder deity. 
This was Tezcatlipoca, next in honor to that invisible Being, 
the Supreme God, who was represented by no image and con- 
fined by no temple. It was Tezcatlipoca who created the world 
and watched over it with a providential care. He was repre- 
sented as a young man, and his image, of polished black stone, 
was richly garnished with gold plates and ornaments, among 
which a shield burnished like a mirror was the most characteris- 
tic emblem, as in it he saw reflected all the doings of the world." 

b. The Landing of the Spaniards and their March to 
the Capital. The first landing of the Spaniards under Cortes,^ 

* The Great Conqueror was born at Medellin, Province of Estrema- 
dura, Spain, in 1485. His father, Martin Cortes de Monroy, was a captain 



HISTORY AND RACES 21 

on Mexican soil, was at Tabasco on March 25, 1519. After a 
sharp brush with the natives, in which the invaders came out 
victorious, they sailed along the coast until they reached the 
spot where the castle of San Juan de Ulua now stands off the 
mainland of Vera Cruz. There they cast anchor on the evening 
of Thursday of Passion Week; the next morning, April 21, 
being Good Friday, Cortes landed, with all his force, on the 



of infantry. His mother was Dofla Catalina Pizarro AUamanno. In 1504, 
when 19 years old, he left Spain for Cuba, where for many years he was 
a prominent figure in the life of the new Crown Colony. He sailed for 
Mexico Feb. 18, 1519, and perhaps no single man ever exerted a greater 
influence on the destiny of that country. He died in the village of Cos- 
tilleja de la Cuesta, near Seville (Spain), Dec. 2, 1547, in the 63d year 
of his age. His body was transported to the chapel of the monastery of 
San Isidro, in Seville, where it was laid in the family vault of the Duke of 
Medina Sidonia. In 1562 it was removed, by order of his son, Martin, to 
New Spain, not, as directed by his will, to Coyoacan, but to the monas- 
tery of San Francisco, in Tezcuco, where it was laid by the side of a 
daughter, and of his mother. In 1629 the remains were again removed; 
and on the death of Don Pedro, fourth "Marquis of the Valley," it was 
decided by the authorities of Mexico to transfer them to the church of 
San Francisco, at the capital. , , . , 

MA military and religious procession was formed with the Archbishop 
of Mexico at its head. He was accompanied by the great dignitaries of 
the church and state, and the members of the Audiencia. The coffin con- 
taining the relics of Cortes was covered with black velvet, and supported 
by the judges of the royal tribunals. On either side of it was a man in 
complete armor, bearing, on the right, a standard of pure white, with the 
arms of Castile embroidered in gold, and, on the left, a banner of black 
velvet, emblazoned in like manner with the armorial ensigns of the house 
of Cortes. Behind the corpse came the Viceroy and a numerous escort of 
Spanish cavaliers, and the rear was closed by a battalion of infantry, 
armed with pikes and arquebuses, and with their banners trailing on the 
ground. 

" With this funeral pomp, by the sound of mournful music, and the slow 
beat of the muffled drum, the procession moved forward till it reached 
the capital. The gates were thrown open to receive the mortal remains of 
the hero who, a century before, had performed there such prodigies of 
valor." 

Yet his bones were not permitted to rest here undisturbed ; and in 1 794 
they were removed to the Hospital de Jesus Nazareno (p. 349). The 
mouldering relics of the warrior, now deposited in a crystal coffin secured 
by bars and plates of silver, were laid in the chapel, and over them was 
raised a simple monument, displaying the arms of the family, and sur- 
mounted by a bronze bust (by Tolsa) of the Conqueror. 

In 1 823, the patriot mob of the capital, in its zeal to commemorate the 
era of national independence, and its detestation of the ".old Span- 
iards," proposed to break open the tomb which held the ashes of Cortes 
and to scatter them to the winds ! The authorities declined to interfere 
on the occasion, but the friends of the family entered the vault by night, 
and secretly removed the relics. It is generally believed that they are 
now in the family vault of the Duke of Terranova, at Palermo, albeit 
some persons insist that they are still in Mexico, hidden in some place 
unknown to the people. . j , i. 

The sword of Cortes and the remains of the banner carried by him in 
the Conquest of Mexico are now in the Museo de Artilleria at Madrid. 

The student interested in the exploits of the Great Captain should 
consult Prescott's Conquest of Mexico ; Bancroft's History of Mexico: 
Gomara's Hiatoria de Mexico (Gomara was the leading biographer of 
Cortes) ; Bernal Diaz's Verdadera Hiatoria de la Conguista ; and Oviedo 8 
Historia General de las Indias. 



22 HISTORY AND RACES 

spot where now stands the city^ of Vera Cruz. After a num- 
ber of interviews with envoys from Montezuma and from other 
chiefs, Cortes determined to march to the Aztec stronghold — 
an undertaking which historians refer to as one of the "most 
daring and adventurous in history; demonstrating, in a high 
degree, the cahbre of those stern and iron-willed conquerors." 

Sending his fleet, which lay at anchor in the bay, to coast 
along the shore to the north as far as Quiahuiztlan, Cortes vis- 
ited in person the town of Cempoalla, made allies of the Toto- 
nacs there, then returned to Vera Cruz to complete arrange- 
ments previous to his departure for the capital. Recalling his 
ships, he brought on shore the cordage, sails, iron, etc., and 
ordered these to be sunk. Then this little handful of men, on a 
hostile shore and arrayed against a formidable empire, turned 
their faces toward the interior. To Mexico! was the cry. " The 
destruction of his fleet by Cortes is perhaps the most remark- 
able passage in the life of this remarkable man. It was an 
act of resolution that has few parallels in history." 

When Cortes set out from the Totonac capital, his forces 
amounted to 400 foot and 15 horse, with 7 pieces of artillery. 
From the cacique of Cempoalla he obtained 1300 warriors, 
and a thousand tamanes, or porters, to drag the guns and 
transport the baggage. He took forty more of their principal 
men as hostages, as well as to guide him on his way and 
to serve by their counsels among the savage tribes he was to 
visit. 

"It would be difficult to depict the impressions of the Span- 
iards as they stood, one beautiful morning, and gazed from the 
crest of the Sierra de Ahualco over the Valley of Mexico, 
Stretching far away at their feet were seen noble forests of 
oak, sycamore, and cedar, and beyond, yellow fields of maize 
and the towering maguey, intermingled with orchards and 
blooming gardens. In the centre of the great basin were beheld 
the lakes, their borders thickly studded with towns and 
hamlets, and in the midst — like some fair empress with her 
coronal of pearls — the fair city of Mexico, with her white 
towers and her pyramidal temples, reposing, as it were, on the 
bosom of the waters — the far-famed 'Venice of the Aztecs.' 

"The 8th of Nov. was a conspicuous day in the history of 
Mexico. With the first faint streaks of dawn, the Spanish 
general was up, mustering his followers. They gathered, with 
beating hearts, under their respective banners, as the trumpet 
sent forth its spirit-stirring sounds across the water and wood- 
land, till they died in distant echoes among the mountains. 
Cortes with his little body of horse formed a sort of advance 
guard to the army. Then came the Spanish infantry. The 
baggage occupied the centre ; and the rear was closed by the 
dark files of Tlascalan (p. 429) warriors. The whole number 
was short of 7,000 ; of which less than 400 were Spaniards. 



HISTORY AND RACES 23 

"For a short distance, the army kept along the narrow 
tongue of land which separates the Tezcucan from the Chalcan 
waters, when it entered on the great dike (now the Tlalpan 
causeway), which, with the exception of an angle near the* 
commencement, stretched in a perfectly straight line across 
the salt floods of Tezcuco to the gates of the capital. 

"The Spaniards had occasion more than ever to admire the 
mechanical science of the Aztecs, in the geometrical precision 
with which the work was executed, as well as the solidity of 
its construction. It was composed of huge stones well laid in 
cement, wide enough throughout its whole extent for ten 
horsemen to ride abreast. 

" Everywhere the invaders beheld the evidence of a crowded 
and thriving population. The temples and principal buildings 
of the adjacent cities were covered with a hard white stucco, 
which glistened like enamel in the level beams of the morning 
sun. The margin of the great basin was thickly gemmed with 
towns and hamlets. The water was darkened by swarms of 
canoes filled with Indians, who clambered up the sides of the 
causeway and gazed with astonishment at the strangers. The 
white-skinned warriors in their gUttering armor, the mail- 
clad horses which resembled gigantic demons to the timid 
Indians, the camp equipages and all the glittering parapher- 
nalia of Spanish accoutrement, presented a terrific sight to 
the amazed Indians, and awed them into a wondering silence. 
At the distance of half a league from the capital, they encoun- 
tered a solid work or curtain of stone, which traversed the 
dike. It was 12 ft. high, was strengthened by towers at the 
extremities, and in the centre was a battlemented gateway, 
which opened a passage to the troops. It was called the Fort 
ofXoloCf and became memorable in after-times as the position 
occupied by Cortes in the famous siege of Mexico. 

" Here they were met by several hundred Aztec chiefs, who 
came out to annoimce the approach of Montezuma, and to 
welcome the Spaniards to the capital. They were dressed in 
the fanciful gala costume of the country, with the maxtlatl, 
or cotton sash, around their loins, and a broad mantle of the 
same material, or of the brilliant feather embroidery, flowing 
gracefully down from their shoulders. On their necks and 
arms they displayed collars and bracelets of turquois mosaic, 
with which delicate plumage was curiously mingled, while their 
ears, under lips, and occasionally their noses, were garnished 
with pendants formed of precious stones, or crescents of fine 
gold. Shortly the Spaniards beheld the glittering retinue of 
the emperor emerging from the great street which led then, 
as it still does, through the heart of the city. Amidst a crowd 
of Indian nobles, preceded by three oflScers of state bearing 
golden wands, they saw the royal palanquin blazing with 
burnished gold. It was borne on the shoulders of nobles, and 



24 HISTORY AND RACES 

over it a canopy of gaudy feather- work, powdered with jewels 
and fringed with silver, was supported by four attendants of 
the same rank. 

"Montezuma wore the girdle and ample square tilmatli 
of his nation. It was made of the finest cotton, with the em- 
broidered ends gathered in a knot round his neck. His feet 
were defended by sandals having soles of gold, and the leath- 
ern thongs which bound them to his ankles were embossed 
with the same metal. Both the cloak and sandals were 
sprinkled with pearls and precious stones, among which the 
emerald and the chalchihuitl — a green stone [jadeite] of high- 
er estimation than any other among the Aztecs — were con- 
spicuous. On his head he wore no other ornament than a 
panache of plumes of the royal green, which floated down his 
back, the badge of military, rather than of regal, rank.^ 

"When the train had come within a convenient distance, 
it halted, and Montezuma, descending from his litter, came 
forward, leaning on the arms of the lords of Tezcuco and 
Iztapalapan — his nephew and brother. As the monarch 
advanced under the canopy, the obsequious attendants strewed 
the ground with cotton tapestry, that his imperial feet might 
not be contaminated by the rude soil. 

"The Spanish army halted as he drew near. Cortes, dis- 
mounting, threw his rein to a page, and, supported by a few 
of his principal cavaliers, advanced to meet him. The inter- 
view must have been one of uncommon interest to both. 
Whatever may have been the monarch's feelings, he so far 
suppressed them as to receive this guest with princely court- 
esy, and to express his satisfaction at personally seeing him 
in his capital. 

"Cortes responded by the most profound expressions of 
respect, while he made ample acknowledgments for the sub- 
stantial proofs which the emperor had given the Spaniards 
of his munificence. He then hung round Montezuma's neck 
a sparkling chain of colored crystal. After the interchange of 
these civilities, Montezuma appointed his brother to conduct 
the Spaniards to their residence in the capital, and, again 
entering his litter, was borne off amidst prostrate crowds, 
in the same state in which he had come. The Spaniards 
quickly followed, and with flying colors and music, soon made 
their entrance into the southern quarter of Tenochtitldn. 

"Here again they found fresh cause for admiration in the 
grandeur of the city and the superior style of its architecture. 
The great avenue through which they were now marching was 

1 " Montezuma was at this time about 40 years of age. His person was 
tall and thin, but not ill made. His hair, which was black and straight, 
was not very long. His beard was thin, his complexion paler than is often 
found in his dusky race. His features, though serious in expression, did 
not wear the look of melancholy which characterizes his portrait." (Pres- 
oott, Conquest of Mexico.) (Compare p. clxxxii.) 



HISTORY AND RACES 25 

lined with the houses of the nobles. They were built of a red, 
porous stone drawn from quarries in the neighborhood. The 
flat roofs {azoteas) were protected by stone parapets, so that 
every house was a fortress. Occasionally a great square or 
market-place intervened, surroimded by its porticoes of stone 
and stucco ; or a pyramidal temple reared its colossal bulk. 

"What impressed the Spaniards most were the throngs of 
people who swarmed through the streets and on the canals, 
filling every doorway and window, and clustering on the roofs 
of the buildings. Strange thoughts must have filled the Aztec 
minds as the inhabitants gazed on the portentous pageant; 
as they heard for the first time the well-cemented pavement 
ring under the iron tramp of the horses — the strange animals 
which fear had clothed in such supernatural terrors ; as they 
gazed on the children of the East, reveahng their celestial 
origin in their fair complexions ; saw the bright falchions and 
bonnets of steel, a metal to them unknown, glancing like 
meteors in the sun, while sounds of unearthly music — at least, 
such as their rude instruments had never wakened — floated 
in the air ! But every other emotion was lost in that of deadly 
hatred, when they beheld their detested enemy the Tlascalan 
stalking, in defiance, as it were, through their streets, and 
staring around with looks of ferocity and wonder, like sorne 
wild animal of the forest who had strayed by chance from hia 
native fastnesses into the haunts of civilization. 

"As they passed down the spacious streets, the troops 
repeatedly traversed bridges suspended above canals, along 
which they saw the Indian barks gliding swiftly with their 
little cargoes of fruits and vegetables for the markets of 
Tenochtitldn. At length they halted before a broad area near 
the centre of the city, where rose the huge pyramidal pile 
dedicated to the patron war-god of the Aztecs, second only, 
in size as well as sanctity, to the temple of Cholula, and cover- 
ing the same ground now in part occupied by the great Cathe- 
dral of Mexico. 

"Facing the western gate of the enclosure of the temple 
stood a low range of stone buildings, spreading over a wide ex- 
tent of ground, the palace of Axayacatl, Montezuma's father, 
built by that monarch about fifty years before. It was ap- 
propriated as the barracks of the Spaniards. ^ The emperor 
himself was in the court-yard waiting to receive him. Ap- 
proaching Cortes, he took from a vase of flowers, borne by 
one of his slaves, a massy collar, in which the shell of a species 
of craw-fish, much prized by the Indians, was set in gold and 
connected by heavy links of the same metal. From this chain 
depended eight ornaments, also of gold, made in resemblance 
of the same shell-fish, a span in length each, and of delicate 
workmanship. Montezuma, as he hung the gorgeous collar 
round the general's neck, said, 'This palace belongs to you, 



26 HISTORY AND RACES 

Malinche, and your brethren. Rest after your fatigues, for 
you have much need to do so, and in a little while I will visit 
you again.* So saying, he withdrew with his attendants, 
evincing in this act a delicate consideration not to have been 
expected in a barbarian. 

" On a subsequent visit to Cortes, Montezuma made many 
inquiries concerning the country of the Spaniards, their 
sovereign, the nature of his government, and especially their 
own motives in visiting Andhuac. Cortes explained these 
motives by the desire to see so distinguished a monarch and 
to declare to him the true Faith professed by the Christians." 

c. The Spaniards in Tenochtitlan. "The Spaniards had 
not been long in the Aztec capital before the true object of 
their visit became apparent to the Mexicans. Their insatiable 
greed of gold and their religious intolerance were ever in evi- 
dence. Cortes and his priests lost no opportunity to preach 
salvation and the cross to their unwilling host ; nor did they 
fail to treat the natives with that lofty contempt from which 
ecclesiastical missionaries of to-day are not always free. If 
Montezuma was steeped in the superstitions of his country, 
the iron-willed conqueror was no less bigoted. Neither cared 
to yield, and the apparent peace was illusory, and was main- 
tained only by fear and force of arms. The unfailing hospi- 
tality of Montezuma, and his princely gifts, failed to awaken 
a feeling of gratitude in the breast of the Spaniard ; they but 
whetted his appetite. The final seizure of the emperor as a 
hostage against any treacherous act on the part of the natives, 
and the confiscation of the imperial treasure, were measures 
which so incensed the Aztecs that it required all Montezuma's 
authority to restrain their impatience." 

The middle of May, 1520, six months after the entrance of 
the Spaniards into Mexico, was the beginning of a long series 
of misfortunes for the invading army. For reasons of safety, 
Cortes deemed it advisable to quit Tenochtitldn, descend to 
the coast, and settle an account of long standing with Pdnfilo 
de Narvaez, a political enemy who had just landed on Mexican 
soil with a squadron of 18 vessels, a large number of men, and 
military stores; the object of the expedition being to capture 
Cortes, supersede him, and return him to Spain to answer 
charges which would be submitted to him by the Spanish Court. 

With his usual good fortune Cortes defeated Narvaez, w^on 
over his men, possessed himself of the equipment, and with 
the reinforcements started back to the capital. On leaving, 
he had placed the city under the charge of Alvarado, with 
a garrison of 140 men, all the artillery, the greater part of 
the little band of horse, and the arquebusiers. But when the 
victorious general and his recruits reached the highlands and 
began the descent into the Valley of Mexico, their reception 
by the natives was significant. •' No one came forth to greet 



HISTORY AND RACES 27 

them; supplies were granted with an ungracious air, and the 
general began to entertain uncomfortable apprehensions 
respecting the fate of the garrison in Mexico. But his doubts 
were soon dispelled by the arrival of a messenger in a canoe, 
from the city, whence he had escaped. He brought de- 
spatches from^ Alvarado, informing his commander that for 
the last fortnight the garrison had suffered greatly from the 
Mexican blockade, but he hoped tranquillity would be restored 
on the approach of his countrymen. Montezuma sent a mes- 
senger also, to the same effect. No effort was made by the 
Mexicans to bar the entry of the Spaniards, and with sad- 
dened feelings they reached the great gate of the palace of 
Axayacatl. The gates were thrown open, and Cortes and his 
veterans rushed in and were cordially embraced by their 
companions in arms. 

^ "The first inquiries of the general were respecting the ori- 
gin of the tumult. The accounts were various, but all agreed 
in tracing the immediate cause to the violence of Alvarado. 

" It was common for the Aztecs to celebrate an annual festival in May 
in honor of their war-god. It was held in the court of the teocalli in the 
immediate neighborhood of the Spanish quarters. They assembled on the 
day appointed, to the number of six hundred. They were dressed in their 
most magnificent gala costumes, and at their special request, Montezuma 
was present. Alvarado and his soldiers attended as spectators. The Az- 
tecs were soon engrossed in the exciting movements of the dance, accom- 
panied by their religious chants and wild, discordant minstrelsy. While 
thus occupied, Alvarado and his men, at a concerted signal, rushed with 
drawn swords on their victims. Unprotected by armor or weapons of any 
kmd, they were hewn down without resistance by their assailants, who 
showed no pity or compunction. Some fled to the gates, but were caught 
on the long pikes of the soldiers. Others who attempted to scale the Wall 
of Serpents, which surrounded the area, shared the like fate, or were cut 
to pieces by the ruthless soldiery. The pavement ran with streams of 
blood. Not an Aztec, of all that gay company, was left alive I Not con- 
tent with slaughtering their victims, the Spaniards rifled them of the 
precious ornaments on their persons 1 On this sad day fell the flower of 
the Aztec nobility. Not a family of note but had mourning and desola- 
tion brought within its walls. Many a doleful ballad, rehearsing the in- 
cidents of the story, and adapted to the plaintive national airs, continued 
to be chanted by the natives long after the subjugation of the country. 

"•N9 sooner was the butchery accomplished than the tidings spread 
like wild-fire through the capital. Men could scarcely credit their senses. 
All they had hitherto suffered, the desecration of their temples, the im- 
prisonment of their sovereign, the insults heaped on his person, all were 
forgotten in this one act. Every feeling of long-smothered hostility and 
rancor now burst forth in the cry for vengeance. The city rose in arms to 
a man; and on the following dawn, almost before the Spaniards could 
secure themselves in their defences, they were assaulted with desperate 
lury. Some of the assailants attempted to scale the walls; others suc- 
ceeded in partially undermining and setting fire to the works. But at the 
prayers of the garrison, Montezuma himself interfered, and, mounting 
the battlements, addressed the populace, whose fury he endeavored to 
mitigate by urging considerations for his own safety. They respected 
their monarch so far as to desist from further attempts to storm the for- 
tress^ but they threw up works around the palace to prevent the egress of 
the Spaniards. They suspended the enemy's supplies, then they quietly 
sat down, with feelings of sullen desperation, waiting for the hour when 
famine should throw their victims into their hands. 



28 HISTORY AND RACES 

" Cortes listened calmly to tlie explanation made hyAlvarado. 
But, before it was ended, he was convinced that he had made 
a wrong selection for this important post. Yet the mistake 
was natural. Alvarado was a cavalier of high family, gallant, 
and his warm personal friend. He had talents for action, was 
possessed of firmness and intrepidity, while his frank and 
dazzling manner made the Tonatiuh, as he was called by the 
Mexicans, a special favorite with them. But underneath this 
showy exterior the future conqueror of Guatemala concealed 
a heart rash, rapacious, and cruel. 

"When Alvarado had concluded his answers to the several 
interrogatories of Cortes, the brow of the latter -darkened, as 
he said to his lieutenant, * You have been false to your trust. 
Your conduct has been that of a madman 1 ' And, turning 
abruptly on his heel, he left him in undisguised displeasure. 

" On the day that Cortis arrived, Montezuma left his quar- 
ters to welcome him. But the Spanish commander received 
him coldly. Their relations were now those of prisoner and 
jailer. In order to quiet the revolt of the people, Cortis re- 
leased Montezuma's brother, Cuitlahua, lord of Iztapalapan. 
He was a bold, ambitious prince, and the injuries he had re- 
ceived from the Spaniards rankled deep in his bosom. He 
was an experienced warrior, and instead of quieting the popu- 
lace he immediately exerted himself to arrange a definite plan 
of operations against the intruders. 

"The Spaniards were not kept in suspense. The Aztecs 
made a desperate assault on the Spanish barracks, bombard- 
ing them with a tempest of missiles — stones, darts, and ar- 
rows — which fell thick as rain on the besieged. The ferocity 
shown by the Mexicans seems to have been something for which 
Cortes was wholly unprepared. They fought furiously through- 
out the day, and the ancient walls of Tenochtitldn shook under 
the thunders of the artillery, the fierce battle-cries of the com- 
batants, the hissing sound of Indian missiles, and the shrieks 
of the wounded and dying. Believing that the temporary 
ebullition of the populace would soon waste itself by its own 
fury, Cortes determined to sally out on the following day and 
inflict such a chastisement on his foes as should bring them 
to their senses and show who was master of the capital. 

" With early dawn the Spaniards were up and under arms. 
As the gray light of morning advanced, it showed the besieg- 
ing army, filling up the great square and neighboring avenues 
in more dense array than on the preceding evening. Before 
the sun had shot his beams into the Castilian quarters, the 
enemy were in motion. The Spanish commander determined 
to anticipate them by a vigorous sortie, for which he had 
already made the necessary dispositions. 

" A general discharge of ordnance and musketry sent death 
far and wide in the enemy's ranks, and, before they had time to 



HISTORY AND RACES 29 

recover from their confusion, the gates were thrown open, and 
Cortes, sallying out at the head of his cavalry, supported by 
a large body of infantry and several thousand Tlascalans, rode 
at full gallop against them. Taken thus by surprise, it was 
scarcely possible to offer much resistance. Those who did were 
trampled down under the horses' feet, cut to pieces with the 
broadswords, or pierced with the lances of the riders. The 
infantry followed up the blow, and the rout for the moment 
was general. 

"Rallying on the other side of a barricade which had been 
thrown across the street, the Aztecs poured in turn a volley 
of their light weapons on the Spaniards, who, saluted with a 
storm of missiles at the same time from the terraces of the 
houses, were thrown into some disorder and checked in their 
career. The canals were alive with boats filled with warriors, 
who with their formidable darts searched every crevice or 
weak place in the armor proof, and made havoc on the unpro- 
tected bodies of the Tlascalans. By repeated and vigorous 
charges the Spaniards succeeded in driving the Indians be- 
fore them, though many, with a desperation which showed 
they loved vengeance better than life, sought to embarrass the 
movements of their horses by clinging to their legs, or, more 
successfully, strove to pull the riders from their saddles. 
And woe to the unfortunate cavalier who was thus dis- 
mounted, — to be despatched by the brutal maquahuitl, or to 
be dragged on board a canoe to the bloody altar of sacrifice ! 

"But the greatest annoyance which the Spaniards endured 
was from the hail of missiles from the azoteas, consisting 
often of large stones, hurled with a force that would tumble 
the stoutest rider from the saddle. Galled in the extreme by 
these discharges, against which even their shields afforded 
no adequate protection, Cortes ordered fire to be set to the 
buildings. But the buildings stood separated from one an- 
other by canals and drawbridges, so that the flames did not 
easily communicate to the neighboring edifices. Hence the 
labor of the Spaniards was incalculably increased, and their 
progress in the work of destruction was comparatively slow. 

"They did not relax their efforts, however, till several hun- 
dred houses had been consumed, and the miseries of a con- 
flagration, in which the wretched inmates perished equally 
with the defenders, were added to the other horrors of the 
scene. But the Aztecs could better afford the loss of a hundred 
lives than their antagonists that of one. And, while the Span- 
iards showed an array broken and obviously thinned in num- 
bers, the Mexican army, swelled by the tributary levies which 
flowed in upon it from the neighboring streets, exhibited, 
with all its loss, no sign of diminution. At length, sated with 
jarnage, and exhausted by toil and hunger, the Spanish com- 
mander drew off his men and sounded a retreat." 



30 HISTORY AND RACES 

Storming of the Great Teocalli. " Opposite the Span- 
ish quarters, at only a few rods distance, stood the great 
teocalli of Huitzilopochtli. This pyramidal mound, with the 
sanctuaries that crowned it, rising altogether to the height 
of near 150 ft., afforded an elevated position that completely 
commanded the palace of Axayacatl. occupied by the Christ- 
ians. A body of five or six hundred Mexicans, many of them 
nobles and warriors of the highest rank, had got possession 
of the teocalli, wh&ncQ they discharged such a tempest of arrows 
on the garrison that no one could leave his defences for a 
moment without imminent danger; while the Mexicans, under 
shelter of the sanctuaries, were entirely covered from the fire 
of the besieged. It was obviously necessary to dislodge the 
enemy, if the Spaniards would remain longer in their quarters. 
Cortes, who saw the inmiediate necessity of carrying the place, 
determined to lead a storming party himself. He was then 
suffering much from a wound in his left hand, which had dis- 
abled it for the present. He made the arm serviceable, how- 
ever, by fastening his buckler to it, and, thus crippled, sallied 
out at the head of 300 chosen cavaliers and several thousand 
of his auxiliaries. 

"In the court-yard of the temple he found a numerous body 
of Indians prepared to dispute his passage. He briskly charged 
them; but the flat smooth stones of the pavement were so 
slippery that the horses lost their footing and many of them 
fell. Hastily dismounting, they sent back the animals to their 
quarters, and, renewing the assault, the Spaniards succeeded 
without much difficulty in dispersing the Indian warriors and 
opening a free passage for themselves to the teocalli. 

'^ Cortes, having cleared a way for the assault, sprang up 
the lower stairway, followed by Alvarado, Sandoval, Ordaz, 
and the other gallant cavaliers of his little band, leaving a 
file of arquebusiers and a strong corps of Indian allies to hold 
the enemy in check at the foot of the monument. On the first 
landing, as well as on the several galleries above, and on the 
summit, the Aztec warriors were drawn up to dispute his 
passage. From their elevated position they showered down 
volleys of lighter missiles, together with heavy stones, beams, 
and burning rafters, which, after thundering along the stair- 
way, overturned the ascending Spaniards and carried desola- 
tion through their ranks. But the assailants pressed on, 
effectually supported by a brisk fire of the musketeers from 
below, which so much galled the Mexicans in their exposed 
situation that they were glad to take shelter on the broad 
summit of the teocalli. 

''Cortes and his comrades were close upon their rear, and 
the two parties soon found themselves face to face on this 
aerial battlefield, engaged in mortal combat in presence of 
the whole city, as well as of the troops in the court-yard, who 



HISTORY AND RACES 31 

paused, as if by mutual consent, gazing in silent expectation 
on the issue of hostilities above. The area, though somewhat 
smaller than the base of the teocalli, was large enough to afford 
a fair field of fight for a thousand combatants. It was paved 
with broad, flat stones. No impediment occurred over its sur- 
face, except the huge sacrificial block, and the temples of 
stone which rose to the height of forty feet, at the further 
extremity of the area. One of these had been consecrated to 
the Cross. The other was still occupied by the Mexican war- 
god. The Christian and the Aztec contended for their religion 
under the very shadow of their respective shrines: while the 
Indian priests, running to and fro, with their hair wildly stream- 
ing over their sable mantles, seemed hovering in mid-air, like 
so many demons of darkness urging on the work of slaughter, 

"The parties closed with the desperate fury of men who 
had no hope but in victory. Quarter was neither asked nor 
given ; and to fly was impossible. The edge of the area was un- 
protected by parapet or battlement. The least slip would be 
fatal, and the combatants, as they struggled in mortal agony, 
were sometimes seen to roll over the sheer sides of the preci- 
pice together. Cortes himself had a narrow escape from the 
dreadful fate. Two warriors seized on him and were dragging 
him violently toward the brink of the pyramid. Aware of 
their intention, he struggled with all his force, and, before they 
could accomplish their purpose, succeeded in tearing himself 
from their grasp and hurUng one of them over the walls with 
his own arm! 

"The battle lasted with unremitting fury for three hours. 
The mmiber of the enemy was double that of the Christians, 
but the invulnerable armor of the Spaniard, his sword of 
matchless temper, and his skill in the use of it, gave him ad- 
vantages which far outweighed the odds of j)hysical strength 
and numbers. Resistance grew fainter and fainter on the side 
of the Aztecs. One after another they had fallen. Two or three 
priests only survived, to be led away in triumph by the vic- 
tors. Every other combatant was stretched a corpse on the 
bloody arena, or had been hurled from the giddy heights. The 
Spaniards lost 45 of their best men : and nearly all the remain- 
der were more or less injured. 

"The victorious cavaliers now rushed toward the sanctu- 
aries. Penetrating into their recesses they had the mortifica- 
tion to find the image of the Virgin and the Cross removed. 
But in the other they beheld the grim figure of Huitzilopochtlij^ 
with his censer of smoking hearts, and the walls of his oratory 
reeking with gore, — not improbably of their own country- 
men! With shouts of triumph the Christians tore the un- 
couth monster from his niche, and tumbled him, in the pre- 



1 This statue is now ia the Museo Nacional at Mexico City. 



32 HISTORY AND RACES 

sence of the horror-struck Aztecs, down the steps of the 
teocalti. They then set fire to the wooden tower of the ac- 
cursed building. The flames speedily ran up the slender 
towers, sending forth an ominous light over city, lake, and 
valley, to the remotest hut among the mountains. It was the 
funeral pyre of paganism, and proclaimed the fall of that 
sanguinary religion which had so long hung like a dark cloud 
over the fair regions of Anahuac. 

"Having accomplished this good work, the Spaniards de- 
scended the winding slopes of the teocalli with more free and 
buoyant step, as if conscious that the blessing of Heaven now 
rested on their arms. They passed through the dusky files of 
Indian warriors in the court-yard, too much dismayed by the 
appalling scenes they had witnessed to offer resistance, and 
reached their own quarters in safety. That very night they 
followed up the blow by a sortie on the sleeping town, and 
burned 300 houses, the horrors of conflagration being made 
still more impressive by occurring at the hour when the Aztecs, 
from their own system of warfare, were least prepared for 
them. 

"Hoping to find the temper of the natives somewhat sub- 
dued by these reverses, Cortes made them a vantage-ground for 
proposing peace terms. In a parley with the principal chiefs 
he pointed out that they had seen their gods trampled in the 
dust, their altars broken, their dwellings burned, their war- 
riors falling on all sides. ' This,' he said, * you have brought on 
yourselves by your rebellion. If you do not lay down your 
arms and return once more to your obedience, I will make 
your city a heap of ruins, and leave not a soul alive to mourn 
over it.' 

"But the Spanish commander did not yet comprehend the 
character of the Aztecs, if he thought to intimidate them 
by menaces. It was true, they answered, he had destroyed 
their temples, broken in pieces their gods, massacred their 
countrymen. Many more doubtless were yet to fall under 
their terrible swords. But they were content so long as for 
every thousand Mexicans they could shed the blood of a single 
white man ! ' Look out,' they continued, ' on our terraces and 
streets; see them still thronged with warriors as far as your 
eyes can reach. Our numbers are scarcely diminished by our 
losses. Yours, on the contrary, are lessening every hour. You 
are perishing from himger and sickness. Your provisions and 
water are failing. You must soon fall into our hands. The 
bridges are broken down, and you cannot escape ! There will 
be too few of you left to glut the vengeance of our gods ! ' As 
they concluded, they sent a whole volley of arrows over the 
battlements, which compelled the Spaniards to descend and 
take refuge in their defences. 

"The fierce and indomitable spirit of the Aztecs filled the 



HISTORY AND RACES 33 

besieged with dismay. The annunciation respecting the bridges 
fell like a knell on their ears. All that they had heard was too 
true; and they gazed on one another with looks of anxiety 
and dismay. 

** A spirit of mutiny broke out, especially among the recent 
levies drawn from the army of Narvaez, and the men de- 
manded, with noisy vehemence, to be led instantly from the 
city, and refused to serve longer in defence of a place where 
they were cooped up like sheep in the shambles, waiting only 
to be dragged to slaughter. In all this they were rebuked by 
the more orderly, soldier-like conduct of the veterans of 
Cortes. These latter had shared with their general the day of 
his prosperity, and they were not disposed to desert him in 
the tempest. 

'^Cortes calmly surveyed his condition, and weighed the 
difficulties which smrounded him, before coming to a decision. 
Independently of the hazard of a retreat in the face of a watch- 
ful and desperate foe, it was a deep mortification to surrender 
the city where he had so long lorded it as master, to abandon 
the rich treasures which he had secured to himself and his 
followers ; to forego the very means by which he had hoped to 
propitiate the favor of his sovereign and secure an amnesty 
for his irregular proceedings. 

" In this condition he had yet to learn the tidings of a fresh 
misfortune in the death of Montezuma. A short time before, 
the Indian monarch had received a javelin wound while 
addressing the infuriated people, and since receiving this 
wound he had declined rapidly. Perceiving his end approach, 
he summoned Cortes and recommended his three daughters to 
his care. He earnestly commended these children to his pro- 
tection, as 'the most precious jewels that he could leave him.' 
He besought Cortes to care for them : to protect them from 
the wrath of the people who beheved Montezuma a traitor to 
them. On the 30th of June, 1520, he expired in the arms of 
some of his own nobles, who still remained faithful to him. At 
the time of his death Montezuma was forty years old. He had 
reigned 18 years." 

d. The Retreat from TenochtitMn. "As there was no 
longer any question as to the expediency of evacuating the 
capital, the Spanish commander called a council of officers to 
deliberate on the matter. It was his purpose to retreat on 
Tlascala, and there to decide on his future operations. The 
general's first care was to provide for the safe transportation 
of the treasure. He delivered the share belonging to the Crown 
to the royal officers, assigning them one of the strongest 
horses, and a guard of soldiers to transport it. Much of the 
treasure was necessarily abandoned, from the want of adequate 
means of conveyance. The metal lay in shining heaps along 
the floor, exciting the cupidity of the soldiers. 'Take what 



34 HISTORY AND RACES 

you will of it,* said CorUs to his men. * Better you should have 
it than these Mexican hounds. But be careful not to overload 
yourselves. He travels safest in the dark night who travels 
lightest.' His own more wary followers took heed to his coun- 
sel, but the common soldiers rushed on the treacherous spoil, 
greedily loading themselves with as much as they could carry. 

"Cortes next arranged the order of march. The van, com- 
posed of 200 Spanish foot, he placed under the command of 
the valiant Gonzdlo de Sandoval, supported by Diego de OrdaZj 
Francisco de Lujo, and about twenty other cavaliers. The 
rear-guard, constituting the strength of the infantry, was en- 
trusted to Pedro de Alvarado, and Velasquez de Leon. The 
general himself took charge of the ' battle' or centre, in which 
went the baggage, some of the heavy guns, the treasure, and 
the prisoners. These consisted of a son and two daughters 
of Montezuma, Cacama, the deposed lord of Tezcuco, and 
several other nobles, whom Cortes retained as important 
pledges in his future negotiations with the enemy. The 
Tlascalans were distributed equally among the three divisions ; 
and Cortes had under his immediate command a hundred 
picked soldiers, his own veterans most attached to his serv- 
ice, who, with Cristdhal de Olid, Francisco de Morla, Alonso 
de Avila, and two or three other cavaliers, formed a select 
corps, to act wherever occasion might require. 

"The general had already superintended the construction 
of a portable bridge to be laid over the open canals in the 
causeway. This was given in charge to an officer named Mar- 
garino, with forty soldiers under his orders, all pledged to 
defend the passage to the last extremity." 

e. La Noche Triste, or Sad Night. "At midnight the 
troops were under arms, in readiness for the march. Mass was 
performed by Father Olmedo, who invoked the protection of 
the Almighty through the awful perils of the night. The gates 
were thrown open, and on the first of July, 1520, the Spaniards 
for the last time sallied forth from the walls of the ancient 
fortress, the scene of so much suffering and such indomitable 
courage. 

"The night was cloudy, and a drizzling rain added to the 
obscurity. The great square before the palace was deserted. 
Steadily, as noiselessly as possible, the Spaniards held their 
way along the great street of Tlacdpan, which so lately had 
resounded with the tumult of battle. All was now hushed in 
silence, and they were only reminded of the past by the occa- 
sional presence of some solitary corpse, or a dark heap of the 
slain, which too plainly told where the strife had been hottest. 
As they passed along the lanes and alleys, which opened into 
the great street, or looked down the canals, whose polished sur- 
face gleamed with a sort of ebon lustre through the obscurity 
of night, they fancied that they discerned the shadowy forms 



HISTORY AND RACES 35 

of their foe lurking in ambush and ready to spring on them. 
But it was only fancy: the city slept undisturbed even by the 
prolonged echoes of the tramp of the horses and the hoarse 
nmibling of the artillery and baggage-trains. 

"As the Spaniards drew near the spot where the street 
opened on the causeway, and were preparing to lay the port- 
able bridge across the uncovered breach, several Indian 
sentinels who had been stationed here, took the alarm and 
fled, rousing their countrymen by their cries. The priests, 
keeping their night-watch on the summits of the teocallis, 
instantly caught the tidings and sounded their shells, while 
the huge drum in the desolate temple of the war-god sent forth 
those solemn tones, heard only in seasons of calamity, which 
vibrated through every corner of the capital. The Spaniards 
saw that no time was to be lost. The bridge was brought for- 
ward and fitted with all possible expedition. Sandoval was 
the first to try its strength, and, riding across, was followed 
by his little body of chivalry, his infantry, and the Tlascalan 
allies who formed the first division of the army. Then came 
Cortes and his squadrons, with the baggage, ammunition- 
wagons, and a part of the artillery. But before they had time 
to defile across the narrow passage, a gathering sound was 
heard, like that of a mighty forest agitated by the winds. It 
grew louder and louder, while on the dark waters of the lake 
was heard a plashing noise, as of many oars. Then came a 
few stones and arrows striking at random among the hurrying 
troops. They fell every moment faster and more furious, till 
they thickened into a terrible tempest, while the very heavens 
were rent with the yells and war-cries of a myriad combatants, 
who seemed all at once to be swarming over land and lake. 

"The Spaniards pushed steadily on through this arrowy 
sleet, though the barbarians, dashing their canoes against the 
sides of the causeway, clambered up and broke in upon their 
ranks. But the Christians, anxious only to make their escape, 
declined all combat except for self-preservation. The cavaliers, 
spurring forward their steeds, shook off their assailants and 
rode over their prostrate bodies, while the men on foot, 
with their good swords or the butt of their pieces, drove them 
headlong again down the sides of the dike. 

"But the advance of several thousand men, marching on 
a front of not more than twenty abreast, necessarily required 
much time, and the leading files had already reached the sec- 
ond breach in the causeway before those in the rear had entirely 
traversed the first. Here they halted, and as they had no means 
of effecting a passage, smarting all the while under uninter- 
mitting volleys from the enemy, who were clustered thick on 
the waters around this second opening, sorely distressed, the 
vanguard sent repeated messages to the rear to demand the 
portable bridge. At length the last of the army had crossed, 



36 HISTORY AND RACES 

and Margarino and his sturdy followers endeavored to raise 
the ponderous framework. But it stuck fast in the sides of the 
dike. In vain they strained every nerve. The weight of so 
many men and horses, and above all, the heavy artillery, had 
wedged the timbers so firmly in the stones and earth that it 
was beyond their power to dislodge them. Still they labored 
amidst a torrent of missiles, until, many of them slain, and all 
wounded, they were obliged to abandon the attempt. 

"The tidings soon spread from man to man, and no sooner 
was their dreadful import comprehended than a cry of despair 
arose, which for a moment drowned all the noise of conflict. 
All means of retreat were cut off. Scarcely hope was left. The 
only hope was in such desperate exertions as each could make 
for himself. Intense danger produced intense selfishness. 
Each thought only of his own life. Pressing forward, he tram- 
pled down the weak and wounded, heedless whether it were 
friend or foe. The leading files, urged on by the rear, were 
crowded on the brink of the gulf. Sandoval, Ordaz, and the 
other cavaliers dashed into the water. Some succeeded in 
swimming their horses across. Others failed, and some, who 
reached the opposite bank, being overturned in the ascent, 
rolled headlong with their steeds into the lake. The infantry 
followed pell-mell, heaped promiscuously on one another, 
frequently pierced by the shafts or struck down by^ the war- 
clubs of the Aztecs: while many an unfortunate victim was 
dragged half-stunned on board their canoes, to be reserved 
for a protracted but more dreadful death. 

"The carnage raged fearfully along the length of the cause- 
way. Its shadowy bulk presented a mass of sufficient distinct- 
ness for the enemy's missiles, which often prostrated their 
own countrymen in the blind fury of the tempest. Those 
nearest the dike, running their canoes alongside, with a force 
that shattered them to pieces, leaped on the land, and grap- 
pled with the Christians, until both came rolling down the 
causeway together. But the Aztec fell among his friends, 
while his antagonist was borne away in triumph to the sacri- 
fice. The struggle was long and deadly. The Mexicans were 
recognized by their white cotton tunics, which showed faint 
through the darkness. Above the combatants rose a wild and 
discordant clamor, in which horrid shouts of vengeance were 
mingled with groans of agony, with invocations of the sainta 
and the Blessed Virgin, and with screams of women ; for there 
were several women, both natives and Spaniards, who had 
accompanied the Christian camp. Among these, one named 
Maria de Estrada is particularly noticed for the courage she 
displayed, battling with broadsword and target like the 
stanchest of the warriors. 

"The opening in the causeway, meanwhile, was filled up 
with the wreck of matter which had been forced into it, am- 



HISTORY AND RACES 37 

munition-wagons, heavy guns,^ bales of rich stuff scattered 
over the waters, chests of soUd ingots,^ and bodies of men and 
horses, till over this dismal ruin a passage was gradually 
formed, by which those in the rear were enabled to clamber 
to the other side. Cortes found a place that was fordable, and 
halting, with the water up to his saddle-girths, he endeavored 
to check the confusion, and lead his followers by a safer path 
to the opposite bank. But his voice was lost in the wild up- 
roar, and finally, hurrying on with the tide, he pressed forward 
with a few trusty cavaliers, but not before he had seen his 
favorite page, Juan de Salazar, struck down, a corpse, by his 
side. Here he found Sandoval and his companions, halting 
before the third and last breach, endeavoring to cheer on 
their followers to surmount it. But their resolution faltered. 
It was wide and deep, though not so closely beset by the 
enemy as the preceding ones. The cavaliers again set the 
example by plunging into the water. Horse and foot followed 
as they could, some swimming, others with dying grasp cling- 
ing to the manes and taUs of the struggling animals. Those 
fared best, as the general had predicted, who travelled lightest; 
and many were the imf ortunate wretches who, weighed down 
by the fatal gold which they loved so well, were buried with it 
in the salt floods of the lake. CorUs, with his gallant comrades, 
Olid, Morla, Sandoval, and some few others, still kept in the 
advance, leading his broken remnant off the fatal causeway. 
The din of battle lessened in the distance; when the rumor 
reached them that the rear-guard would be wholly over- 
whelmed without speedy relief. It seemed almost an act of 
desperation : but the generous hearts of the Spanish cavaliers 
did not stop to calculate danger when the cry for succor 
reached them. Turning their horses, they galloped back to 
the theatre of action, worked their way through the press, 
Bwam the canal, and placed themselves in the thick of the 
mel^e on the opposite bank. 

" The first gray of the morning was now coming over the 
waters. It showed the hideous confusion of the scene which 
had been shrouded in the obsciuity of night. The dark masses 
of combatants, stretching along the dike, were seen struggling 
for mastery, until the very causeway on which they stood 
appeared to tremble, as if shaken by an earthquake; while 
the bosom of the lake, as far as the eye could reach, was dark- 
ened by canoes crowded with warriors, whose spears and 
bludgeons, armed with blades of volcanic glass, gleamed in 
the morning light. 

"The cavaliers found Alvarado unhorsed, and defending 
himself with a poor handful of followers against an over- 
whelming tide of the enemy. His good steed, which had 

1 One witness estimates that over 2,000,000 peaoa were lost during that 
night. 



38 HISTORY AND RACES 

borne him through many a hard fight, had fallen under him. 
He was himself wounded in several places, and was striving 
in vain to rally his scattered colmnn, which was driven to the 
verge of the canal by the fury of the enemy, then in possession 
of the whole rear of the causeway. The artillery in the earlier 
part of the engagement had not been idle, and its iron shower, 
sweeping along the dike, had mowed down the assailants by 
hundreds. But nothing could resist their impetuosity. The 
front ranks, pushed on by those behind, were at length forced 
up to the pieces, and, pouring over them like a torrent, over- 
threw men and guns in one general ruin. The resolute charge 
of the Spanish cavaliers, who had now arrived, created a 
temporary check, and gave time for their countrymen to 
make a feeble rally. But they were speedily borne down by 
the returning flood. Cortes and hig companions were com- 
pelled to plunge again into the lake, though all did not escape, 
Alvarado stood on the brink for a moment, hesitating what 
to do. Unhorsed as he was, to throw himself into the water, 
in the face of the hostile canoes that swarmed around the 
opening, afforded but a desperate chance of safety. He was 
a man of powerful frame, and despair gave him unnatural 
energy. Setting his long lance firmly on the wreck which 
strewed the bottom of the lake, he sprung forward with all his 
might, and cleared the wide gap at a leap ! Aztecs and Tlas- 
calans gazed in stupid amazement, exclaiming, as they be- 
held the incredible feat, ' This is truly the Tonatiuh, the child 
of the Sun 1 ' The breadth of the opening is not given. But 
it was so great that the valorous captain, Diaz^ who well re- 
membered the place, says the leap> was impossible to any 
man. To this day the spot is familiarly known to every in- 
habitant of the capital ; and the name of the Calle del Puente 
de Alvarado [p. 339] —street of the Bridge of Alvarado — still 
commemorates the exploit. 

' * Cortes and his followers now rode forward to the front, where 
the troops were marching off the fatal causeway. The atten- 
tion of the Aztecs was diverted to the rich spoil that strewed 
the battle-ground, and, but little molested, the jaded Span- 
iards were allowed to defile through the adjacent suburb of 
Popotla. 

"The Great Captain there dismounted from his tired steed, 
and sitting beneath a giant tree [comp. p. 418] gazed mournfully 
on the broken files as they passed before him. The cavalry, 
most of them dismounted, were mingled with the infantry, who 
dragged their feeble limbs along with difficulty ; their shattered 
mail and tattered garments dripping with the salt ooze, show- 
ing through their rents many a bruise and ghastly wound, 
their bright arms soiled, their proud crests and banners gone, 
the baggage, artillery, and all that constitutes the pride and 
panoply of glorious war, forever lost. Cortes, as he looked 



HISTORY AND RACES 89 

wistfully on their thin and disordered ranks, sought in vain 
for many a familiar face, and missed more than one dear com- 
panion who had stood side by side with him through all the 
perils of the Conquest, Though accustomed to control his emo-i 
tions, the sight was too much for him. He covered his face 
with his hands, and the tears which trickled down revealed 
too plainly the anguish of his soul. 

" He found some consolation, however, in the sight of several 
of the cavaliers on whom he most relied. Alvarado, Sandoval^ 
Olid, Ordaz, Avila, were yet safe. He had the inexpressible 
satisfaction, also, of learning the safety of Marina, the Indian 
interpreter. Aguilar, the other interpreter, had also escaped. 
And it was with no less satisfaction that Cortes learned the 
safety of the ship-builder, Martin Lopez. The general's solici- 
tude for the fate of this man, so indispensable to the success 
of his subsequent operations, showed that, amidst all his 
affliction, his indomitable spirit was looking forward to the 
hour of revenge. 

• 'The loss sustained by the Spaniards on this fatal night, 
according to Cortes's own letter, did not exceed o^e hundred 
and fifty Spaniards and two thousand Indians. But Thoan 
Cano, one of the cavaliers present, estimated the slain at 
1,170 Spaniards and 8,000 allies. Forty-six of the cavalry 
were cut off. The greater part of the treasure, the baggage, 
the general's papers, including a minute diary of transactions 
since leaving Cuba, were swallowed up by the waters. The 
ammunition, the beautiful little train of artillery with which 
Cortes had entered the city, were all gone. Not a musket re- 
mained, the men having thrown them away, lest they retard 
their escape on that disastrous night. Such were the results 
of this terrible passage of the causeway ; more disastrous than 
those occasioned by any other reverse which had stained the 
Spanish arms in the New World ; and which have branded 
the night on which it happened, in the national annals, with 
the name of la noche triste, ' the melancholy night.' " 

/. Siege and Downfall of Tenochtitlan. "In the spring 
of 1521 we find the Great Caj)tain once more in the Valley 
of Mexico, blockading and besieging the ancient Aztec city. 
Provided with fresh arms and military stores; with fresh re- 
cruits and an inexliaustible supply of new energy; strongly 
supported by thousands of Indian allies thirsting for the com- 
plete annihilation of the Aztec stronghold, the Spanish com- 
mander set about the downfall of the doomed^ city with a 
singleness of purpose that brooked no defeat. Building a num- 
ber of brigantines, he launched them on the lake and defeated, 
in a bloody encounter, the Indian flotilla that came to meet 
them. Day after day the intrepid Aztecs sallied out to meet 
the Spaniards, and as frequently were they forced back. For 
weeks and months the invaders lived a life of incessant toil 



40 HISTORY AND RACES 

almost too severe for even their stubborn constitutions. Many 
of their desperate assaults were repulsed by the besieged, whose 
proud spirit seemed not to weaken, albeit famine was now 
gradually working its way into the heart of the beleaguered 
city. On one occasion the Spaniards made a general assault 
on the city, but they were defeated with such loss that for a 
time their position was critical. 

"A day was fixed for the final assault, which was to be 
made simultaneously by the two divisions under Alvarado 
and the commander-in-chief. Sandoval was instructed to 
draw off the greater part of his besieging forces from the 
northern causeway and to unite himself with Alvarado, while 
seventy picked soldiers were to be detached to the support 
of CorUs. On the appointed morning the two armies advanced 
along their respective causeways against the city. They were 
supported, in addition to the brigantines, by a nimierous fleet 
of Indian boats, and by a countless multitude of allies, whose 
very numbers served in the end to embarrass their operations. 
Cortes divided his forces into three bodies. One of them he 
placed under Alderete^ with orders to occupy the principal 
street. A second he gave in charge to Andris de Tapia and 
Jorge de Alvarado; the former a cavalier of courage and ca- 
pacity, the latter a younger brother of Don Pedro, and pos- 
sessed of the intrepid spirit which belonged to that chivalrous 
family. These were to penetrate by one of the parallel streets, 
while the general himself, at the head of the third division, 
was to occupy the other. A small body of cavalry, with two 
or three field-pieces, was stationed as a reserve in front of the 
great street of Tacuba, which was designated as the rallying- 
point for the different divisions. 

*' Cortes gave the most positive instructions to the captains 
not to advance a step without securing the means of retreat 
by carefully filling up the ditches and the openings ot the cause- 
ways. The neglect of this precaution by ^Zvarado, in an assault 
which he had made on the city but a few days before, had 
been attended with such serious consequences to the army 
that Cortes rode over to his officer's quarters for the purpose 
of publicly reprimanding him for his disobedience of orders. 
On his arrival at the camp, however, he found that his offend- 
ing captain had conducted the affair with such gallantry that 
the intended reprimand subsided into a mild rebuke. 

^*The arrangements being completed, the three divisions 
marched at once up the several streets. Cortes, dismounting, 
took the van of his own squadron, at the head of his infantry. 
The Mexicans fell back as he advanced, making less resistance 
than usual. The Spaniards pushed on, carrying one barri- 
cade after another, and carefully filling up the gaps with rub- 
bish, so as to secure themselves a footing. The canoes supported 
the attack, by moving along the canals, and grappling with 



HISTORY AND RACES 41 

those of the enemy; while numbers of the nimble-footed 
Tlascalans, scaling the terraces, passed from one house to 
another, hurling the defenders into the streets below. The 
enemy, taken apparently by surprise, seemed incapable of 
withstanding the fury of the assault. The facility of his 
success led Cortes to suspect that he was advancing too fast. 
Determined to trust no eyes but his own, he proceeded to 
reconnoitre the route followed by his victorious troops. 

"His conjecture proved too true. Alderete had followed the 
retreating Aztecs with an eagerness which increased with 
every step of his advance. He had carried the barricades 
which had defended the breach, and, as he swept on, gave 
orders that the opening should be stopped. But the blood of 
the high-spirited cavaliers was warmed by the chase, and no 
one cared to be detained by the ignoble occupation of filling 
up the ditches. In this way they suffered themselves to be 
decoyed into the heart of the city. Suddenly the horn of 
Guatemozin — the sacred symbol, heard only in seasons of 
extraordinary peril — sent forth a long and piercing note 
from the summit of a neighboring teocalli. In an instant, the 
flying Aztecs, as if maddened by the blast, wheeled about and 
turned on their pursuers. At the same time, countless swarms 
of warriors from the adjoining streets and lanes pom-ed in 
upon the flanks of the assailants, filling the air with the fierce, 
unearthly cries which had reached the ears of Cortes, and 
drowning, for a moment, the wild dissonance which reigned in 
the other quarters of the capital. 

"The army, taken by surprise, and shaken by the fury of 
the assault, was thrown into the utmost disorder. Friends 
and foes, white men and Indians, were mingled together in 
one promiscuous mass. Spears, swords, and war-clubs were 
brandished together in the air. Blows fell at random. In 
their eagerness to escape they trod down one another. Blinded 
by the missiles which now rained on them from the azoteas, 
they staggered on, scarcely knowing in what direction, or 
fell, struck down by hands which they could not see. On they 
came, like a rushing torrent sweei)ing along some steep decliv- 
ity, and rolling in one confused tide toward the open breach, 
on the farther side of which stood Cortes and his companions, 
horror-struck at the sight of the approaching ruin. The fore- 
most files soon plunged into the gulf, treading one another 
under the flood, some striving ineffectually to swim,^ others, 
with more success, to clamber over the heaps of their suffo- 
cated comrades. Many, as they attempted to scale the oppo- 
site sides of the slippery dike, fell into the water, or were 
hurried off by the warriors in canoes, who added to the horror 
of the rout by the fresh storm of darts and javelins which they 
poured on the fugitives. 

i* Cortes, with his brave followers, kept his station undaunted 



42 HISTORY AND RACES 

on the other side of the breach. With outstretched hands he 
endeavored to rescue as many as he could from the watery 
grave, and from the more appaUing fate of captivity. He as 
vainly tried to restore something like presence of mind and 
order among the distracted fugitives. His person was well 
known to the Aztecs, and his position now made him a con- 
spicuous mark for their weapons. Stones, darts, and arrows 
fell around him as thick as hail, but glanced harmless from 
his steel helmet and armor. At length a cry of ' Malinche, 
Malinche,' arose among the enemy; and six of their number, 
strong and athletic warriors, rushing on him at once, made a 
violent effort to drag him on board their boat. In the struggle 
he received a severe wound in the leg, which, for the time, dis- 
abled it. There seemed to be no hope for him : when a faithful 
follower, Cristobal de Olea, perceiving his general's extremity, 
threw himself on the Aztecs, and with a blow cut off the arm 
of one savage, and then plunged his sword in the body of an- 
other. He was quickly supported by a comrade named Lermaf 
and by a Tlascalan chief, who, fighting over the body of the 
prostrate Cortes, despatched three more of the assailants, 
though the heroic Olea paid dearly for his self-devotion, as he 
fell mortally wounded by the side of his general. 

^'With the aid of his cavaliers Cortes at length succeeded 
in regaining the firm ground and reaching the open place 
before the great street of Tacuba. Here, under a sharp fire 
of the artillery, he rallied his broken squadrons and beat off 
the enemy. 

"That night the jaded Spaniards from their camp saw a 
long file of priests and warriors climbing to the flat summit 
of the teocalli. Among them were several men stripped to the 
waist, some of whom, by the whiteness of their skins, they 
recognized as their own countrymen. Their heads were gaud- 
ily decorated with coronals of plumes, and they carried fans 
in their hands. They were urged along by blows, and com- 
pelled to take part in the dances in honor of the Aztec war- 
god. The unfortunate captives, soon stripped of their sad 
finery, were stretched, one after another, on the great stone 
of sacrifice. 

" We may imagine with what sensations the stupefied Span- 
iards must have gazed on this horrid spectacle, so near that 
they could almost recognize the persons of their unfortunate 
friends, see the struggles and writhings of their bodies, hear 
their screams of agony! Their limbs trembled beneath them 
as they thought what might one day be their own fate : and 
the bravest among them, who had hitherto gone to battle 
as careless and light-hearted as to the banquet-room, were 
unable, from this time forward, to encounter their ferocious 
enemy without a sickening feeling, much akin to fear, coming 
over them. 



HISTORY AND RACES 43 

" But amidst all the distress and multiplied embarrassments 
of their situation, the Spaniards still remained true to their 
purpose. They relaxed in no degree the severity of the block- 
ade. Their camps still occupied the only avenues to the city, 
and their batteries, sweeping down the long defiles at every 
fresh assault of the Aztecs, mowed down hundreds of the 
assailants. 

" Soon there was no occasion to resort to artificial means to 
precipitate the ruin of the Aztecs. It was accelerated every 
hour by causes more potent than those arising from human 
agency. Pent up in their suffocating quarters, nobles, com- 
moners, and slaves, men, women, and children, faced inevitable 
starvation. They wandered about in search of anything that 
might mitigate the fierce gnawings of hunger. Some hunted 
for insects and worms on the borders of the lake, or gathered 
the salt weeds and moss from its bottom, while at times they 
might be seen casting a wistful look at the green hills beyond, 
which many of them had left to share the fate of their breth- 
ren in the capital. Hundreds of famished wretches died every 
day from extremity of sujffering. 

" Cortes offered the dying Aztecs a chance to capitulate, but 
they refused. As long as they were able to stand they made 
murderous assaults on the Spanish camps, to be ruthlessly 
beaten back or slaughtered by the invaders. 

"It was the memorable 13th of August, 1521, the day of 
SU Hippolytus, — from this circumstance selected as the patron 
samt of modern Mexico, — that Cortes led his warlike array 
for the last time across the black and blasted environs which 
lay around the Indian capital. On entering the Aztec pre- 
cincts, he paused, willing to afford its wretched inmates one 
more chance to escape before striking the fatal blow. He 
obtained an interview with some of the principal chiefs, and 
expostulated with them on the conduct of their prince. ' He 
surely will not,' said the general, 'see you all perish, when 
he can so easily save you.' He then urged them to prevail 
on Guatemozin to hold a conference with him, repeating the 
assurance of his personal safety. 

"The messengers went on their mission, and soon returned 
with the cihuacoatl at their head, a magistrate of high author- 
ity among the Mexicans. He said, with a melancholy air, 
that ' Guatemozin was ready to die where he was, but would 
hold no interview with the Spanish commander': adding, 
in a tone of resignation, * it is for you to work your pleasure.' 
Go, then,' replied the stern conqueror, 'and prepare your 
countrymen for death. Their hour is come.' 
^ " He still postponed the assault fop several hours. But the 
impatience of his troops at this delay was heightened by 
the rumor that Guatemozin and his nobles were preparing to 
escape with their effects in piraguas and canoes which were 



44 HISTORY AND RACES 

moored on the margin of the lake. Convinced of the impolicy 
of f m-ther procrastination, Cortes made his final disposition for 
the attack, and took his own station on an azotea which com- 
manded the theatre of operations. 

-' When the assailants came into the presence of the enemy, 
they found them huddled together in the utmost confusion, 
all ages and sexes, in masses so dense that they nearly forced 
one another over the brink of the causeways into the water 
below. Some had climbed on the terraces, others feebly 
supported themselves against the walls of the buildings. 
Their squalid and tattered garments gave a wildness to their 
appearance which still further heightened the ferocity of 
their expression, as they glared on their enemy with eyes in 
which hate was mingled with despair. When the Spaniards 
had approached within bowshot, the Aztecs let off a flight 
of impotent missiles, showing to the last the resolute spirit of 
their better days. The fatal signal was then given by the 
discharge of an arquebuse, — speedily followed by peals of 
heavy ordnance, the rattle of firearms, and the hellish shouts 
of the confederates as they sprang upon their victims. It is 
imnecessary to stain the page with a repetition of the horrors 
of the preceding day. Some of the wretched Aztecs threw 
themselves into the water and were picked up by canoes. 
. Others sank and were suffocated in the canals. The number 
of these became so great that a bridge was made of their dead 
bodies, over which the assailants could climb to the opposite 
banks. Others again, especially the women, begged for mercy, 
which, as the chroniclers assure us, was everywhere granted 
by the Spaniards, and, contrary to the instructions of Cortes, 
everywhere refused by the confederates. 

'* While this work of butchery was going on, numbers were 
observed pushing off in the barks that lined the shore, and 
making the best of their way across the lake. They were con- 
stantly intercepted by the brigantines, which broke through 
the flimsy array of boats, sending off their volleys right and 
left, as the crews of the latter hotly assailed them. The battle 
raged as fiercely on the lake as on land. 

'^Sandoval had particularly charged his captains to keep 
an eye on the movements of any vessel in which it was at all 
probable that Guatemozin might be concealed. At this crisis 
three or four of the largest piraguas were seen skimming over 
the water and making their way rapidly to the shore. A cap- 
tain named Garcia Holguin came alongside one of the piraguas, 
and ordered his men to level their cross-bows at the boat. But 
before they could discharge them a cry arose from those in 
it that their lord was on board. At the same moment a young 
warrior, armed with buckler and maquahuitl, rose up, as if 
to beat off the assailants. But as the Spanish captain ordered 
his men not to shoot, he dropped his weapons, and exclaimed, 



HISTORY AND RACES 45 

'I am Guatemozin. Lead me to Malinche: I am his prisoner: 
but let no harm come to my wife and my followers.' 

" The news of Guatemozin' s capture spread rapidly through 
the fleet, and on shore. When the warriors heard it they ceased 
fighting. It seemed as if the fight had been maintained thus 
long to divert the enemy's attention and cover their master's 
retreat. 

■* On the day following the surrender, Guatemozin requested 
the Spanish commander to allow the Mexicans to leave the 
city and to pass unmolested into the open country. To this 
Cortes readily assented. The whole number who departed from 
the stricken place is estimated at from thirty to seventy thou- 
sand, besides women and children who had survived the sword, 
pestilence, and famine. Of the whole number who perished 
in the course of the siege it is impossible to form any accurate 
computation. The accounts range widely, from 120,000, the 
lowest estimate, to 240,000. The number of Spaniards who 
fell was comparatively small. The historian of Tezcuco asserts 
that 30,000 of his own countrymen perished. 

^'The booty found by the Spaniards fell far below their 
expectations. It did not exceed, according to the general's 
statement, a hundred and thirty thousand casteUanos of gold, 
including the sovereign's share, which, indeed, taking into 
account many articles of curious and costly workmanship, 
voluntarily relinquished by the army, greatly exceeded his 
legitimate fifth. It is believed that the Aztecs sunk vast 
treasures in the waters of the lake. 

"Thus, after a siege of nearly three months' duration, 
unmatched in history for the constancy and courage of the 
besieged, seldom surpassed for the severity of its siidfferings, 
fell the renowned capital of the Aztecs." (Prescott's Conquest.) 

g. The Vice-Regal Period. Mexico was under the iron rule 
of Spain from 1621 to 1821, and during those three centuries 
it was ruled by five {Hernan CortSs first) Governors (1521-28), 
two Audiencias (1528-35), and sixty-two Viceroys (1535-1821), 
the last of whom was Francisco Novella. Personal ambition 
and religious zeal stimulated Cortes to the Conquest, and 
covetousness and the love of power were the salient character- 
istics of many of the peruked and bespangled rulers who fol- 
lowed him. These viceroys (virreyes) were for the most part 
Spanish nobles, prelates, or court politicians, who sought the 
position for selfish purposes and with the idea of repairing 
their dilapidated fortmies in the New World. They ruled over 
one of the most extensive empires of the world — a colony 
which extended over 20 degrees of latitude, which embraced 
every known climate, and which contained millions of human 
beings. They were responsible only to the King of Spain and 
the powerful Consejo de las Indias (thousands of miles away), 
and during their incumbency of oflGice, the conquered territory 



46 HISTORY AND RACES 

was exploited for the Viceroys, the Church, and the Spanish 
Crown. The vice-regal salary was forty thousand pesos a year 
(raised in 1689 to $70,000), and despite enormous expendi- 
tures, some of these petty kings were enabled to return to 
Spain after a lapse of a few years with vast fortunes wrung 
from the coerced and enslaved natives. Foreigners were ex- 
cluded from the country, education was monopolized by the 
clergy, and the best land, the most profitable commerce, and 
the most influential government offices were held by the native 
Spaniards. But among the men of this long vice-regal succes- 
sion were some whose ambition was to uplift the oppressed 
Indians and to govern their country for them, wisely and 
well. Their names are conspicuous in Mexican history and 
their memory is revered by the people. 

Antonio de Mendoza (Conde de Tendilla y Comendador de 
Socuellanos) , the 1st Viceroy (1535-50), was distinguished for 
his humane efforts to mitigate the hardships of the enslaved 
Indians. He sent expeditions northward on voyages of dis- 
covery; founded the cities of Valladolid (now Morelia) and 
Guadalajara; issued the first money minted in Mexico; aided 
Fray Pedro de Gante to establish schools, — particularly the 
celebrated school of Santiago Tlaltelolco, — and caused the 
first printing-press to be brought from Spain. The noble 
missionary Fray Bartolome de las Casas reached Mexico during 
his reign and received his ardent support. The mines of 
Guanajuato and Zacatecas were exploited. The admirable 
precedent of this benevolent man strongly influenced 

Luis de Velasco, 2d V. (1550-64). The example of La» 
Casas ("Defender of the Indians") for good was so great that 
Velasco emancipated 150,000 Indians enslaved by Spanish 
landowners. He founded (1553) the first University in New 
Spain, and the Hospital Real; distributed Crown Lands 
among the Indians ; and by means of expeditions northward, 
he essayed to pacify and civilize the nomad tribes of those 
regions. One of his captains discovered the still enormously 
productive silver-mines of Fresnillo and Sombrerete. Silao, 
Durango, and San Miguel de AUende were founded during his 
reign, and the great Dike of San Lazaro was built. He died 
in Mex. City July 31, 1564, and he is revered as the great 
"emancipator." 

Gaston de Peralta, 3d V. (1566-68), was succeeded by 

Martin Enriquez de Almanza (Knight of Santiago), 4th V. 
(1568-80). He was known as the "Inquisitor," because the 
Inquisition was established in Mexico during his reign. During 
his incumbency of office the Jesuits reached Mexico (1572); 
the corner-stone of the Mex. City Cathedral was laid (1573), 
and the city of Leon was founded (1576). During the time of 

Lorenzo Juarez de Mendoza, 5th V. (1580-84), the fabulously 
rich mines of San Luis Potosf were discovered. 



HISTORY AND RACES 47 

Pedro Moya de Contreras (Archbishop of Mexico), the 6th 
V. (1584), 'was succeeded (in 1585) by 

Alvaro Manriquez de Zilniga {Marques de Villa Manrique), 
7th V. (1585-90), who extended the commerce between Mexico 
and the Far East. 

Luis de Velasco (Marques de Salinas), a> son of the "Emanci- 
pator, "was the 8th V. Cl590-95). He framed just laws for the 
protection of the Indians, and was a wise and benevolent 
ruler. 

Gaspar de Zuniga y Acevedo (Count of Monterey), the 9th 
V. (1595-1603), extended the Spanish dominions into Cali- 
fornia, founded there the town of Monterey, another of the 
same name in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, and Santa Fe 
in New Mexico. He also conveyed to Spain the astounding 
information that since the coming of the Spaniards to Mexico, 
the native population had fallen off three fourths ! 

Juan Manual Hurtado de Mendoza y Luna (Marques de 
Montesclaros), 10th V. (1603-07), was succeeded by 

Luis de Velasco, who returned from Peru and became Viceroy 
(11th), for the second time (1607-11). The great Cut of 
Huehuetoca (p. 135), aimed to drain the Valley of Mexico, 
was begun by his order. 

Archbishop Garcia Guerra, 12th V. (1611-12). 

Diego Fernandez de Cdrdova (Marques de Guadalcazar) , 
13th V. (1612-21). 

Diego Carrillo de Mendoza y Pimentel (Conde de Priego y 
Marques de Gelves), 14th V. (1621-24). 

Rodrigo Pacheco Osorio (Marques de Cerralvo), 15th V' 
(1624-35). 

Lope Diaz de Armendariz, 16th V. (1635-40). 

Diego Lopez Pacheco Cabrera y Bobadilla (Duque de Escalona 
y Marques de Villena), 17th V. (1640-42). ^ 

Juan de Palafox y Mendoza (Bishop of Puebla), 18th V. 
(for about 5 months). 

Garcia Sarmiento de Sotomayor (Count of Salvatierra) , 19th 
V. (1642-48). 

Marcos Lopez de Torres y Rueda (Bishop of Yucatan), 20th 
V. (1648-50), was a zealous bigot, who caused 15 persons to 
be strangled and burned by the Inquisition. 

Luis Enriquez de Guzman (Count of Alba Liste), 21st V. 
(1650-53). 

Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva (Duque de Albuquerque), 
22d V. (1653-60). 

Juan de Leiva y de la Cerda (Marques de Leiva y de Ladrada), 
23d V. (1660-64). 

Diego Osorio de Escobar y Llamas (Bishop of Puebla), 24th 
V. (for a few months in 1664) was succeeded by 

Antonio Sebastian de Toledo, Molina y Salazar, 25th V. 
(1664-73). 



48 HISTORY AND RACES 

Pedro Nwho Colon de Portugal y Castro {Dugue de Veragtias), 
26th V. (for six days in 1673). 

Fray Payo Enriquez de Rivera (Archbishop of Mexico), 27th 
V. (1673-80), was a wise and progressive ruler, untainted 
by the bigotry which at that time was a clerical trait. 

Tomds Antonio Manrique de la Cerda, 28th V. (1680-86). 

Melchor Portocarrero Laso de la Vega (Count of Monclova), 
29th V. (1686-88), founded Monclova (State of Coahuila), and 
built, at his own expense, the great aqueduct which formerly 
brought water from Chapultepec to Mexico City. 

Caspar de la Cerda Sandoval Silva y Mendoza {Conde de 
Calve), 30th V. (1688-96), accomplished the Conquest of Texas 
(1691) ; founded (1692) the city of Pensacola (Florida) ; sent 
many colonists to New Mexico, and proved an energetic, 
far-sighted, and just ruler. During his reign the first Amer- 
ican newspaper, El Mer curio Volante, was established. 

Juan de Ortega Montanez (Bishop of Michoacan), 31st V. 
(1696), was replaced by 

Jos6 Sarmiento Valladares {Conde de Montezuma), 32d V. 
(1696-1701), who wedded Maria Andrea Montezuma, third 
Countess and fourth in descent from Montezuma II, through 
his son,^ Pedro Johualicahuatzin Montezuma. 

Juan de Ortega Montaflez became Viceroy (33d) a second 
time in 1701. 

Fernandez de la Cueva Enriquez (Duque de Albuquerque), 
34th V. (1701-11) , colonized New Mexico and founded the pre- 
sent town of Albuquerque (U. S. A.). 

Fernando de Alencastro Marona y Silva {Marqv4s de 
Valdafuentes), 35th V. (1711-16). 

Baltazar de Zuniga Guzman Sotomayor y Mendosa, 36th V. 
(1716-22). 

Juan de Acuna (Marques de Casafuerte), 37th V, (1722-34), 
conducted the affairs of the Province in a liberal and enlight- 
ened way. He was a Peruvian, and the only American-born 
Viceroy. 

Juan Antonio de Vizarron y Eguiarreta (Archbishop of 
Mexico), 38th V. (1734-40). 

Pedro de Castro Figueroa y Salazar, 39th V. (1740-42). 

Pedro Cebrian y Agustin {Conde de Fuenclara), 40th V. 
(1742-46), made the first effort to collect and tabulate prac- 
tical statistical information concerning Mexico. 

Juan Francisco deCuemes y Horcasitas, 41st V. (1746-55). 

Agustin de Ahumada y Villalon, 42d V. (1755-60). 



1 The Spaniards impressed their wishes and their personality so strongly 
on the Indians that many of these subjects— some through inclination, 
others through fear— discarded their own names for Spanish titles. In 
certain cases proper names were retained and Castilian Christian names 
were added. 



HISTORY AND RACES 49 

Francisco Caflgal de la Vega (ex-Govemor of Cuba), 43d 
V. for a brief penod. 

Joaquin de Monserrat (Marqu4s de Cruilla^), 44th V. (1760- 
66), organized for the first time a regular army in Mexico. 

Carlos Francisco de Croix {Marques de Croix), 45th V. 
(1766-71), raised the salary of the Mexican Viceroys from 
$40,000 to $70,000 a year. Many civic improvements. He 
doubled the size of the Alameda ; sent a royal convoy to Spain 
(1770) with thirty millions of silver 'pesos, and was instru- 
mental in enforcing the royal order (of June 25, 1767) which 
expelled the Jesuits from Mexico* An able ruler. 

Antonio Maria de Bucareli y Ursua, 46th V. (1771-79), 
a wise, benevolent, and thoroughly admirable man, whose in- 
fluence is yet felt in Mexico. He developed the country in a 
variety of ways; increased commerce; minted $127,396,000 
in Mex. silver; fostered the military strength of the nation, 
and carried to completion more civic reforms than had all the 
viceroys combined who preceded him. With this man arose 
the star of New Spain. A book could be filled with the stories 
(still current among the people) of his wisdom, kindness, and 
judgment. He died in oflBce April 9, 1779, and was buried 
with great honors in the church of Nuestra Senora de Guada^ 
lupe. Several of the principal streets of the city (the Calles 
de Bucareli, p. 371) were named for him, and his memory is 
fresh and sweet in the hearts of intelligent Mexicans. 

Martin de Mayorga (Governor of Guatemala), 47th V. 
(1779-83). 

Matias de Galvez, surnamed "The Diligent," 48th V. (1783- 
85), an earnest, quiet worker, with an ambition to elevate the 
people to better things. 

Bernardo de Galvez (son of Matias de G.), 49th V. (1785-87), 
constructed the Castillo de Chapultepec (p. 386). 

Alonzo Nunez de Haro y Peralta (Archbishop of Mexico), 
50th V. (1787). 

Manuel Antonio Flores (Governor of Bogotd), 51st V. 
(1787-89).^ 

Juan Vicente de Gilemes Pacheco de Padilla (Conde de 
Revillagigedo), 52d V. (1789-94), a stern and eccentric 
nobleman with an aptitude for civic reform. He ably seconded 
the work begun by Bucareli; caused the streets of Mexico 
City to be cleaned, paved, and lighted ; organized an efiicient 
police force; executed a number of highwaymen; established 
weekly posts between the capital and outlying intendencies, 
and remodelled the military organization. He started an ex- 
pedition from Mexico that reached as far north as Behring's 
Straits. He was wont to prowl the city's streets at midnight 
in search of abuses, which he summarily corrected, and he 
placed a locked box with a slit in the lid, in a public place, for 
the receipt of petitions and complaints from those who could 



50 HISTORY AND RACES 

not obtain a personal interview with him. One night he 
entered a street flanked by squaUd dwelHngs and terminating 
in a cul de sac. The corregidor (mayor) was at once ordered to 
open a wide highway and to have it completed so that he, 
the Viceroy, might drive through it on his way to mass the 
following morning. A small army of workmen were routed 
out of their beds, and the next morning the Calle de Revil- 
lagigedo (which now intersects the Avenida Juarez at the 
Alameda in Mex. City) was completed. 

Miguel de la Grua Talamanca (Marques de Branciforte, an 
Italian adventurer), 53d V. (1794-98), secured his appoint- 
ment by chicanery, and before his retirement succeeded in 
making himself the most cordially detested official in the 
Colony. During his reign all that portion of Florida (now 
U. S. A.) lying west of the Perdido River was ceded to France. 

Miguel Jose de Azanza, called "The Bonapartist," 54th V. 
(1798-1800). 

Felix Berenguer de Marquina, 55th V. (1800-03), caused to 
be made the splendid equestrian statue (comp. p. 373) of 
Carlos IV, at Mexico City. 

Jose de Iturrigaray, "The Monarchist," 56th V. (1803-08). 

Pedro Garibay, ^'The Revolutionist," 57th V. (1808), ad 
interim. 

Francisco Javier Lizana (Archbishop of Mexico), 58th V. 
(1809-10). 

Pedro Catani (Presidente of the Audiencia), 59th V. (1810), 
ad interim. 

Francisco Javier Venegas, 60th V. (1810-16). Coincident 
with the opening of his reign began the Revolutionary period. 

Juan Ruiz de Apodaca, 61st V. (1816-21), was known aa 
"The Unfortunate," because he reached Mexico when the 
power of Spain was declining, and the country was in the throes 
of a revolutionary war which the Spanish troops were unable 
to quell. 

Francisco de Novella, Azahal, Perez y Sicardo, 62d V. (1821), 
remained in office but a few months, and was the last of the 
vice-regal line. He was relieved by 

Juan O'Donoju, Captain-General of New Spain, and the 
last Spanish ruler in Mexico. He reached Vera Cruz in 1821, 
took the oath of office there Aug. 3, but was prevented by 
the revolutionists from exercising his authority. He died 
at Mexico City Oct. 7, from an attack of pleurisy brought on 
— it is said — by chagrin at the thought that Mexico was no 
longer a Spanish colony.^ 

h. War for Independence. During the reign of the Span- 
ish Viceroy Jose de Iturrigaray, in Mexico, the internal affairs 

1 Portraits in oil of all the succession of rulers, from Cortes to O'Donoju, 
maybe studied in the National Museum (p. 298), and in the Palacio 
Municipal (p. 292) at Mexico City. 



HISTORY AND RACES 61 

of Spain were hopelessly muddled ; Carlos IV had abdicated 
in favor of Ferdinand VII, who, in turn, had been forced to 
step aside in favor of Joseph Bonaparte. Iturrigaray believed 
that Mexico should govern itself (with a Spanish Viceroy as 
King), and he convened an assembly of notables with the aim 
of securing the necessary power. He won over the masses by 
promising to relinquish the regency as soon as another Spanish 
King should occupy the Spanish throne. The Spaniards in 
Mexico rebelled, seized the Viceroy, and imprisoned him in the 
fortress of San Juan de Ulua (at Vera Cruz), whence he was 
sent back to Spain. 

The independence idea appealed to the people and they 
nursed it. Centuries of despotism and misgovernment had 
failed to kill out the patriotism and strength of the Mexicans, 
and independence soon became the chief thought of every 
one. Correspondence clubs were established in some of the 
towns, and plans for an early uprising were formulated. 
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, parish priest of the village of 
Dolores (in Guanajuato), took the idea of freedom for Mexico 
nearest to heart. He was a Creole (born May 8, 1753), nearly 
sixty years old, with a powerful influence over the Indians of 
his parish. He began the manufacture of lances, and planned 
an uprising during the annual Indian fiesta which began in 
Dec. His nearest confidants were the several members of an 
alleged Society for the Study of the Fine Arts, established in 
1808 in the city of Queretaro. From this centre a sustained 
influence was soon radiating, and the society counted upon 
many members in the adjoining State of Guanajuato. The 
influence of the Mayor (Corregidor) of Queretaro was soon 
secured, as well as that of his wife, La Corregidora, Dona 
Josef a Ortiz de Dominguez. Coincidently arms and ammuni- 
tion, and the adherence of Captains Ignacio Allende and Juan 
Aldama of the King's Regiment, stationed hard by, were also 
obtained. 

Mariano Galvan, a traitor to the cause, imparted his know- 
ledge to the Queretaro postmaster, who immediately repaired 
to Mexico City and disclosed the revolutionary plans to the 
Government. On the night of Sept. 13, an intimation of the 
publicity of the plans reached the ears of Rafael Gil de Leon, 
an ecclesiastic judge of Q., and because of his friendship for 
the mayor he warned him. The latter at once sought the ad- 
vice of his wife, who in turn sent a trusty messenger to warn 
Hidalgo of his peril. The Cura was told (at 2 a. m. Sept. 16) 
that the conspiracy was discovered, and he decided to strike 
the blow at once. At early mass, he announced to his parish- 
ioners that "Spain was no longer Spanish, but was French, 
and that the time for Mexico to be free had come." He dwelt 
upon how the Spanish soldiery had oppressed even the peace- 
ful inhabitants of his own village, stealing their savings, 



52 HISTORY AND RACES 

ruining their fields, and violating their homes. The modest 
Bilk industry started by Hidalgo had been destroyed, as the 
Spaniards had cut down the mulberry trees. The Indians 
appeared ripe for a revolt. Hidalgo then rang the famous 
liberty bell (comp. p. 268), and voiced the stirring appeal 
known since as the Grito de Dolores (the cry from Dolores). 
This was, in substance: "Long live our most Holy Mother 
of Guadalupe! Long live America, and death to bad govern- 
ment!" The zealous patriot began the march forthwith. 
Passing the church of Atotonilco, he took therefrom a banner 
bearing a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and, affixing it 
to his lance, adopted it as the standard of the "Army of In- 
dependence." The making of the struggle a religious war as 
well as one for freedom was more the promptings of a pious 
mind than a premeditated stroke of diplomacy. The priest 
felt that with so redoubtable a patroness victory would assur- 
edly be theirs. 

The idea filled the Indians with enthusiasm, and when the 
insurgents reached the town of San Miguel that night, the 
regiment to which Captain Allende belonged declared at once 
for independence. Celaya surrendered on Sej)t. 21, as the 
army marched through on its way to the rich city of Guana- 
juato. An organization of the army was attempted at Celaya, 
and Hidalgo was proclaimed Captain-General of his 20,000 
troops. 

Guanajuato, capital of the Province of G., contained 80,000 
inhabitants, the richest silver-mines in Spanish-America, and 
was, in point of wealth, second to Mexico City. After desperate 
fighting, the place was captured. The Spaniards took refuge 
in the Alhdndiga, or Castle of Grenaditas, and one of 
the bloodiest battles of the revolution soon raged round its 
walls. The insurgents were for the most part armed with bows 
and arrows, slings, machetes (cane-knives), and lances, and 
while the provincial militia fought with great determination, 
under skilled ofiicers, the impetuous onslaught of the patriots 
won. Despite Hidalgo's earnest entreaties, a general massacre 
took place. Three centuries of Spanish misrule and oppression 
told upon the Indians, and their war-cry, '' Mueran los Gachu- 
pines " (death to the Spaniards), was emphasized by three days 
of carnage and destruction. 

From the Alhdndiga, Hidalgo secured five millions of pesos, 
which went to swell the treasury of the revolutionists. The 
province declared for him and many of the provincial militia 
deserted to his standard. He at once had the bells of the city 
cast into cannon, employed the mint to coin money (in the 
name of Ferdinand F/Z), and continued his attempts to organ- 
ize his army. 

Meanwhile the Viceroy had awakened to the dangers of the 
situation, ^nd was sending out troops under skilled command- 



HISTORY AND RACES 63 

ers to combat the insurgents, and to protect places along 
their proposed line of march. The Church became alarmed at 
the peril which threatened it through a government over 
which it had established a quasi-protectorate. The Bishop 
of Michoacan hurled edicts of excommunication against all 
insurgents, and Archbishop Lizana issued a pastoral letter 
combating the principles upon which Hidalgo justified the 
revolution, and ordering the Spanish and Creole clergy to 
declare from their pulpits, and cause it to be everywhere 
known, that the purpose of the revolution was to subvert the 
Holy Catholic Church. The Inquisition charged Hidalgo with 
every error of which that tribunal took cognizance. The Vice- 
roy Venegas published a proclamation offering a reward of 
ten thousand pesos for the capture, dead or alive, of Hidalgo 
and his two chief military companions. 

The army left Guanajuato (Oct. 10) and proceeded to 
Valladolid (now Morelia), which immediately declared for 
independence. Upon the approach of the army, the Bishop, 
Council, and civil authorities evacuated the place. Here Hi- 
dalgo's force was swelled by a considerable body of soldiery, 
and the erstwhile country priest found himself at the head 
of an undisciplined army of 80,000 men. He took vast sums 
from the coffers of the Valladolid Cathedral, but was excom- 
municated by the Bishop of the diocese for the act. Here he 
also learned of a vice-regal proclamation decreeing that any 
one taken with arms against the Government would be shot 
within fifteen minutes after capture without the " benefit of 
clergy." 

The army began its march to Mexico City, gaining^ new 
adherents by the way. Hidalgo reviewed his troops at Acdm- 
baro and was proclaimed '' Generalisimo." Oct. 30, he fought 
his first engagement with the royal forces in the field (at 
Monte de las Cruces) , and won a signal victory over the Span- 
ish forces under General Truxillo. The defeat demoralized 
the vice-regal army, and had Hidalgo moved at once upon the 
capital, it is probable that it would have fallen into his hands 
and given success to his plans. Herein he proved a poor 
generalisimo, and showed a lack of military sagacity. After 
advancing to the hacienda of Quaximalpa (5 leagues from the 
panic-stricken capital) and sending a summons (which elicited 
no reply) to the Viceroy to surrender, he retreated with his 
army toward the interior of the country. On Nov. 7, the army 
encountered a train of artillery and 10,000 well-equipped 
Creole troops commanded by General Felix Maria Calleja del 
Uey, who had been sent out to concentrate the vice-regal 
forces. In the desperate battle which ensued, Hidalgo's In- 
dians displayed more courage than discretion ; rushing with 
their clubs and improvised lances upon the bayonets of the 
enemy, to fall in heaps. They were so ignorant of the effects 



64 HISTORY AND RACES 

of artillery that they ran up to cannon in action and attempted 
to stop them with their sombreros. After beating a hasty re- 
treat, it was found that they had suffered a loss equal to the 
entire Spanish force. 

Entering Guadalajara, Hidalgo concentrated his forces and 
organized a government. Calleja went to Guanajuato, and 
made that city the scene of notable cruelties in retaliation 
for the excesses committed by Hidalgo's Indians. Fourteen 
thousand of the inhabitants were butchered. 

A commissioner sent by Hidalgo from Guadalajara to the 
United States was captm-ed by the Spaniards, the patriot's 
plans and resources were learned, and his downfall hastened. 
While he was engaged in promulgating decrees abolishing 
slavery and stamp duties, royal forces were sent against him, 
a battle was fought at Puente de Calderon (Jan. 16, 1811), 
and the army of independence dispersed. Hidalgo, Allende, 
Aldama, and Jimenez held together and started northward, 
intending to secure assistance and purchase arms in the 
United States. They were captured and later executed, 
and their heads taken to Guanajuato and placed upon pikes 
at the four corners of the Alhondiga, as "a warning to Mex- 
icans who chose to revolt against Spanish government." 
There the heads remained until independence was won. In 
1823, their bodies were buried under the Altar de los Reyes, 
in the apse of the Mexico City Cathedral. 

Hidalgo's logical successor was his pupil, Josi Maria More- 
las, a Mestizo, a Catholic priest, an intrepid fighter, and a com- 
mander of marked ability. He took over the command and 
began a successful and destructive campaign against the Span- 
iards. In six-and-twenty hard-fought engagements he was 
successful in all but two. In a battle near Acapulco (whither 
he was sent by Hidalgo in 1810), he defeated the vice-regal 
troops, captured 800 muskets, 5 pieces of artillery, 700 pris- 
oners, much ammunition, and a large sum of money. After 
the war he was known as "The Hero of a Hundred Battles." 

Among the trusted lieutenants of Morelos was another 
priest, Mariano Matamoros, noted for his military genius. 
Aiding him were the celebrated Dr. Cos, the Bravos brothers, 
Galena, Manuel de Mier y Teran, Felix Hernandez, Ignacio 
Lopez Rayon, Jose Maria Liceaga, and a host of ambitious 
patriots. 

Early in 1812 two battalions of Spanish troops, including 
a famous regiment of Asturias (which had won the title of 
"the Invincibles" in the Peninsula), came to Mexico to sup- 
port the vice-regal government, and to assist in reducing the 
Independents to subjection. The insurgents were severely 
punished, but their military exploits were not checked. A 
guerrilla warfare now raged throughout the colony, and the 
royal troops were harassed incessantly. The exploits of the 



HISTORY AND RACES 55 

rancheros (ranchmen) formed one of the most pictm*esque 
chapters of the long war. Expert in the use of the lariat* 
born with an aptitude for guerrilla fighting, hardy, brave, and 
persistent, they were to the Spaniards what Morgan and hia 
shifty band were to the Northern troops during the American 
war of 1864. They travelled usually in small groups, and 
scattered when danger threatened, to reunite at some given 
point miles away. Each unit was a formidable fighting ma- 
chine, at once dreaded and detested by the Iberian troops, 
who were unused to being dragged from their saddles by a 
hurtling lasso, bumped across a cacti-strewn plain and trussed 
and hustled like yearling steers. 

Morelos now called a Congress of Mexicans, and essayed to 
organize an Independent Nation. Forty deputies assembled 
at Chilpancingo in Sept., 1813, and Morelos was nominated 
Captain-General of the Independent forces; decrees were 
passed abolishing slavery, imprisonment for debt, and the 
collection of tithes for the support of religious societies. The 
Congress removed to Tlacotepec, and finally convened in 
Apatzingan, where it published (Nov. 16, 1813) its formal 
Declaration of Independence of Spain. " Mexico was declared 
free from Spanish control, with liberty to work out its own 
destiny, and with the Roman Catholic religion for its spiritual 
guidance." The name chosen for the new nation was "The 
Kingdom of Andhuac." A Constitution, liberal in its pro- 
visions, was adopted. Copies of this, and the Declaration, 
were, by order of the Viceroy, ceremoniously burned in pub- 
lic in the City of Mexico, and in the principal towns of the 
Republic. 

Morelos now undertook to traverse a section of the country 
in possession of the Spaniards, and was captured (near Tex- 
malaca), loaded with chains, and taken as a prisoner to the 
capital. He was brought before the Holy Office, condemned, 
and his auto-de-fe was the last pronounced by the Inquisition 
in Mexico. After being degraded by the priesthood he was 
handed over to the secular arm, and was shot at San Cristobal 
Ecatepec in Dec, 1815. 

The heroic days of the revolution ended with Morelos, and 
the cause soon languished. When (Sept., 1816) Calleja del Rey 
was succeeded in the Virreinato by Juan Ruiz de Apodaca, the 
insurgents were apparently under Spanish control. Every 
captured revolutionist had been summarily shot. With the 
exception of the freebooting expedition of Francisco Javier 
Mina, in 1817, Mexico was so little disturbed by actual war 
until 1820, that the Viceroy, whose policy was conciliatory, 
reported to the Regent that he would answer for the safety 
of Mexico, and that there was no need of sending any more 
troops from Spain. 

But a formidable uprising soon occurred, and the Viceroy 



56 HISTORY AND RACES 

appointed Agustin de Iturbide, commander of the District 
of the South. After fighting a few engagements with the in- 
surgents under General Vicente Guerrero, Iturbide met the 
latter and proposed that they should unite in proclaiming 
the independence of Mexico. In conformity, Iturbide pub- 
lished (Feb. 24) the famous Plan de Iguala known as Las 
Tres Garantias, in that it provided for the conservation of the 
Roman Catholic Church, for the absolute independence of 
Mexico as a moderate monarchy, with an ostensible adhesion 
to Ferdinand VII, and for the union of Spaniards and Mex- 
icans in the bonds of friendship. The plan received the im- 
mediate support of the clergy, who just now found themselves 
in an awkward situation. ^ 

The colors of the Mexican flag (adopted April 14, 1823) 
represented the Tres Garantias : white (religious purity) ; red 
(union of Spaniards and Mexicans); green (independence). 
Iturbide's army was thereafter called the Army of the Three 
Guarantees, 

Revolutionary leaders, who had retired from the struggle 
discouraged, came to the front, the people arose en masse, 
and Mexico was soon aflame with the sacred cause of patri- 
otism. The Viceroy, Apodaca (the Unfortunate), was forced 
to resign, and Francisco de Novella became Viceroy ad interim. 
The Plan de Iguala was a popular success, and Iturbide cap- 
tured the cities of Valladolid, Quer4taro, and Puebla, and 
laid siege to Mexico City. When General Juan O'Donoju, 
bearing the commission of Captain-General, arrived at Vera 
Cruz (July 30, 1821) to supersede the Viceroy Novella, he 
found the country in the hands of the Independents, and Vera 
Cruz itself in the possession of the Independent Chief, Antonio 
Lopez de Santa Anna (b. Feb. 21, 1795, d. June 21, 1876). 

The Spanish representative was placed in the embarrassing 
position of having to ask of Santa Anna the privilege of land- 
ing upon the continent, and of requesting of Iturbide a safe 
conduct to the capital. Perceiving that it would be impossible 
to arrest the revolution by force, O'Donoju proposed to treat 
with Iturbide. They met at Cordoba (Aug. 24, 1821), and 
O'Donoju signed, on behalf of his Government, the "Treaty 
of Cordoba." It embodied the Plan de Iguala; declared Mexico 
sovereign and independent; provided for a constitutional 

1 In 1820 the Spanish revolutionists proclaimed the Constitution of 
1812, and Ferdinand found himself under the necessity of supporting it. 
This Constitution dissolved the convents, abolished the Inquisition, or- 
dained the freedom of the press, and seized the tithes of the secular clergy 
on the ground that the money was required by the State in a great emer- 
gency. The Mexican clergy at once found their privileges and alleged 
rights menaced, and despite the fact that nine years before, they had 
opposed the revolution in Mexico, and had denounced as heretical the 
idea of Independence or separation from. Spain, they now discovered 
that their interests demanded "«an absolute separation from Spain and 
its radicalism!" 



HISTORY AND RACES 67 

representative monarchy, for the call of the Bourbon family 
of Spain to the throne, and for the immediate establishment 
of a provisional government, pending the arrival of the 
chosen monarch. It also assured to the people the liberty of 
the press, and the equal rights of Spaniards and Mexicans, 
and provided that the Army of the Three Guarantees should 
occupy the capital, and that the Spanish troops should be 
sent out of the country as sobn as possible. 
Y^ Iturhide made his triumphal entry into Mexico City Sept. 
27, 1821, and on that date ended the Spanish power in Mexico. 
He was hailed as "Liberator," and the occasion was marked 
by great rejoicing. The title of Lord High Admiral was con- 
ferred upon him, and as Generalisimo of the Army and head 
of the nation, the people addressed him as Serene Highness. 

Guatemala voluntarily united with Mexico Feb. 21, 1822 
(it seceded July 1, 1823), and Iturhide found himself the mas- 
ter of a nation whose territorial extent was one of the greatest 
in the world — China and Russia alone being larger. Its pos- 
sessions comprised, in addition to the present Republic of 
Mexico, Guatemala on the south, and on the north all the 
region between the Red and Arkansas Rivers and the Pacific 
Ocean, extending as far north as the present northern bound- 
ary of the United States. 

To the great disgust of the old Spanish nobility he instituted 
an order of nobility, calling the members Caballeros (gentle- 
men) de Guadalupe, and embarked upon a riotous course 
which soon caused his downfall. 
y; i. First Empire. The First Congress of the Mexican Nation 
convened Feb. 24, 1822, and was found to comprise three 
distinct parties, notwithstanding the oath taken by each 
deputy to support the Plan de Iguala and the Treaty of Cdr- 
doha. One party — composed of the army, the clergy, and 
a few malcontents — wanted to place Iturhide on the throne. 
The Republicanos wanted the "Plan" set aside and a Federal 
Republic established. The Independents and the Spaniards 
— united only in their hatred of Iturhide — desired to have 
executed exactly the Plan de Iguala by placing on the throne 
a Spanish Prince. The meeting was the pgnal for hostilities 
which extended over nearly fifty years. 

On May 18, 1822, the "Liberator" forced a pronuncia- 
miento in his favor in the cuartel (barracks) of San Hipolito 
(Mexico City), and in a turbulent meeting of Congress, from 
which Republican members were excluded, Iturhide was 
elected Emperor of Mexico by a vote of 75 to 15. He immedi- 
ately took the oath of ofiice before Congress, and organized 
a Provisional Council of State. On the 21st of July he and his 
wife were anointed and crowned with great solemnity in the 
Mexico City Cathedral; Iturhide assumed the title of Agustin 
I, Emperador. His first act was to dissolve the existing Con- 



58 HISTORY AND RACES 

gress, imprison its most contumacious members, and rej)lace 
them by a junta composed of two deputies from each province, 
of his own selection. 

I j. Fall of the Empire and Rise of the Republic. A mon- 
archical government for Mexico was unsatisfactorxjto -the 
Revolutionary leaders. The bombast of the arrogant, pageant- 
loving Mestizo seemed a j)oor result for the sacrifice of the 
good cura Hidalgo, of the intrepid Morelos, Allende, Aldama, 
and a hundred other pure-minded patriots. For a time Iturhide 
was able to quell the uprisings by the aid of national troops, 
but the empire fell into disrepute, and soon collapsed. Gen- 
eral Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna headed (Dec, 1822) a for- 
midable uprising in Jalapa, and in a month's time Iturbide's 
alleged empire was reduced to the limits of Mexico City. 
Guerrero and Bravo followed the example of Santa Anna and 
led a revolt in the North. The country was soon aflame with 
anger, and rather than provoke a civil war Iturhide abdicated 
(March 20, 1823), and under a declaration of banishment from 
the country, he was permitted to retire from the capital. His 
salary as Emperor had been $125,000 a year (which he paid 
to himself from forced loans and with paper money issued by 
his commands) , and in recognition of his eminent services to 
Mexico he was granted a life annuity of $25,000. Soon after 
his retirement he wrote from London to the Mexican Govern- 
ment, warning it of the machinations of the " Holy Alliance" 
to restore Spanish rule in Mexico. He offered his services 
should an attempt be made. Congress replied (April 28) to his 
letter by a decree declaring that should Iturhide return he 
would be regarded as a traitor and be put to death. Unaware 
of this, Iturhide landed in disguise at Soto la Marina (July 
14, 1824), was arrested, brought before the legislature of the 
State of Tamaulipas, and condemned to death. He was shot 
July 24, 1824. 

The Plan of Iguala, with its three guarantees of Religion, 
Independence, and Union, and the Treaty of Cordoba were 
now repudiated by Congress, The bars of green, white, and red 
in the flag of the Tres Garantias had been horizontal ; they 
were now changed to upright, with the green bar next to the 
staff, and this was adopted as the flag of the Republic. The 
national coat-of-arms, showing an eagle upon a nopal cactus, 
strangling a serpent, was also adopted. 

A Congress was installed (Nov., 1823) to discuss the adoption 
of a fundamental law for the country, and it drew up an in- 
strument closely resembling that of the Constitution of the 
United States. It contained thirty-six articles (proclaimed 
in the form of a Constitution, Oct. 4, 1824) and it defined the 
government to be Popular, Representative, Federal, and Re- 
publican. It proclaimed the national sovereignty; the inde- 
pendence of the States (allowing them independent govern- 



HISTORY AND RACES 59 

ment in internal afifairs, without prejudice to the rights of the 
Federal Government) ; the organization of the supreme power, 
the independence of the judicial powers, and guaranteed to 
the clergy their already vested rights. This new Republic 
comprised five territories and nineteen states; each of the 
latter with a governor, legislature, and a tribunal of justice. 
The States were to organize their governments in conformity 
to the Federal Act. The general powers of the National Gov- 
ernment resided in the Federal District (Mexico City) and 
comprised a General Congress, a Supreme Coiu-t of Judicature, 
and a President — of the United Mexican States — with four 
Ministers. The legislative power was vested in a Congress 
comprising a Senate and House of Representatives. The 
Supreme Court was to be composed of 11 judges, elected by 
the legislatures of the several States. 

The third article of the Constitution was significant: "The 
Religion of the Mexican Nation is, and will perpetually be, 
the Roman Catholic Apostolic. The nation will protect it by 
wise and just laws, an^ prohibit the exercise of any other 
whatever." jA/'^'f.- " -' _^' •*-^-' ' * 

')( The Constitution .was received by the people with custom- 
'ary enthusiasm. Felix Fernandez, who styled himself Guada- 
lupe Victoria (in homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe) , took the 
oath of office (Oct. 4, 1825) as the first President of Mexico, 
and the country began its career as a Constitutional Republic. 

In 1825 the fortress of San Juan, de Ulua (Vera Cruz), until 
then held by the last of the Spanish forces, was evacuated, 
and the Republic of Mexico received the formal recognition 
of England and the United States. The paternal support 
received by the fledgeling Republic from the great American 
Republic at the norths gave it an impetus which had potent 
bearing on its future, dme message of President Monroe (Dec, 
1823) to the Congress of the United States contained the fol- 
lowing significant declarations : 

'i (1) The American Continents, by the free and independent condition 
which they have assmned and maintained, are henceforth not to be con- 
sidered as subjects for future colonization by any foreign power : (2) 
Any attempt on the part of European Powers to extend their political 
systems to any portion of the Western Hemisphere would be considered 
dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States. Any interposi- 
tion by such Powers for the purpose of opposing or controlling the gov- 
ernments which have declared their independence and maintained it, 
and whose independence had been acknowledged by the United States, 
could not be viewed in any other light than as a manifestation of an un- 
friendly disposition to the United States; that the political system of 
European Powers could not be extended to any portion of either of the 
American continents without endangering the peace and happiness of 
the United States, nor would such extension be regarded with indiffer- 
ence." 

This "Monroe Doctrine" bomb-shell "launched into the 
armed camps of Europe" enabled the Mexican Republic to 
start on its eventful career unhampered by foreign interfer- 



60 HISTORY AND RACES 

ence ; it was effectual in preventing Spain from making further 
serious attempts to reclaim her lost provinces in America, 
although she withheld the recognition of the Republic of 
Mexico until 1836. (Comp. p. clx.) 
">v The Free and Independent Republic progressed during the 
/ wise administration (4 years) of its first President. He signal- 
ized (1825) the anniversary of the Grito de Dolores by the lib- 
eration of certain slaves purchased by the Government with 
a fund raised for that purpose; and of other slaves given up 
by their owners with the same object in view. A law was 
passed (1826) abolishing all titles of nobility and restricting 
parents with regard to the distribution of property among 
their children, thus striking a blow at the Spanish institu- 
tion of mayorazgo, or primogeniture. The treasury was full of 
money (the remainder of a loan of sixteen millions of dollars, 
negotiated at London in 1823 and known as the "English 
Debt"), and the future was bright. 

But the Church — then a hot-bed of insurrection and 
unrest — squirmed under its restrictions and the loss of power 
arrogated to itself under vice-regal rule. Any government 
not wholly ecclesiastical was viewed by the clergy with dis- 
trust, and the first rift in the lute came (1827) in the form of 
an insurrection headed by two Franciscan friars, who aimed 
to restore the prestige lost by Spain and the Mother Church. 
The incident caused a strong anti-Spanish feeling, and a decree 
was secured (1828) by the Federalists for the expulsion of all 
Spaniards from Mexico. 

A great warring ensued between the Centralists or Con- 
servatives (the Church party) and the Federalists or Liberals 
(Republican party), and albeit the Spaniards were permitted 
to remain in the country, peace was henceforth but illusory, 
and was maintained by force of arms. 

Prominent among the turbulent spirits of this era was 
General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, a shrewd but unprin- 
cipled Creole ; accomplished, courageous, and quick to espouse 
any cause that promised personal advancement. He attained 
to the presidency in 1832 — after a series of "mimic revolu- 
tions" which extended over four or five years — and until his 
final overthrow the Republic was in a turmoil which made 
material progress impossible. 

Combating retrogression and striving to advance their 
country, such men as Vicente Guerrero, General Manuel Gomez 
Pedraza, General Bravo, and Valentin Gomez Farias (at one 
time Vice-President) were prominent among the honorable, 
intelligent, and democratic spirits of the epoch. Gomez Farias 
aimed to secure the absolute liberty of the press ; the abolish- 
ment of special class privileges whereby the clergy and the 
army gained great advantages over the masses; the separa- 
tion of Church and State, including the suppression of monas- 



HISTORY AND RACES 61 

tic institutions (the great idea made effective by the Leyes de 
Reforma of President Juarez nearly three decades later); 
the abolition of the right of ecclesiastics to interfere in secular 
affairs ; the restoration and maintenance of the national credit 
by a readjustment of the public debt; and a host of measures 
which would have worked for the country's good. 

He succeeded in establishing a decree abolishing the system 
of tithes levied as a tax for the support of ecclesiastical insti«- 
tutions; and another enjoining the civil courts from maintain- 
ing the binding force of monastic vows, leaving members of 
religious organizations free to abandon their convents if they 
chose to do so. In many wise acts he began the system of 
government reforms which it took the remainder of the nine- 
teenth century to see accomplished. 

Santa Anna, who meanwhile had been in retirement on his 
hacienda at Mango de Clava, secured again the reins of gov- 
ernment (1834), annulled the liberal decrees of Gomez Farias, 
deposed that able and honorable man from the Vice-Presi- 
dency, and compelled him to leave the country. The lovers of 
liberal institutions and good government looked on with dis- 
may, but without power to interfere. Mexico's universal repu- 
tation for unstable government was now assured. Its people 
were regarded as restless and revolutionary, and in some quar- 
ters as being savage and uncivilized. The elevation of Santa 
Anna to the unlimited power of Dictator was destined to con- 
firm this evil reputation. 

In May, 1835, the Plan de Toluca was promulgated, whereby 
the Federal System was declared changed into a Central- 
ized Government, termed by decree the Central Republic. 
A new Constitution was adopted by Congress, known as Las 
Siete Leyes — the seven laws. It confirmed the Centralized 
System, with but one House of Legislature for the entire 
country. The States were changed into Departments, xmder 
the control of Military Commandants, who were responsible to 
the chief authority of the nation. The Republic now became 
a military oligarchy, and imtil 1847 the supreme power was 
vested in whoever might be, at the time, the most successful 
military leader. Conditions in Mexico were almost anarchical ; 
life was unsafe, property was not respected, and the reputation 
of the country abroad was of the worst. 

k. The War with the United States. ^ "In 1820, Moses 
Austm, a resident of Missouri, U. S. A., obtained the privilege 
of settlmg in Texas under the plea of being a Roman Catholic 
persecuted by Protestants. A certain element in the U. S. A. 
believed that Texas belonged more to their Government than 
to that of Mexico, and that President Monroe, in volimtarily 
surrendering it to Spain (at the time of the cession of Florida), 

.« U^°?^"l^ History of the American Civil War, by John W. Draper; 
M.D., LL.D. (New York, 1868.) 



62 HISTORY AND RACES 

acted unwisely. Moses Austin died prematurely, but his son, 
Stephen F. Austin, carried out his intentions, and the Ameri- 
cans obtained a foothold in the country. In 1821, Mexico 
granted certain charters to colonists, which from time to time 
were renewed by the successive governments. In 1827 and 
1829, ineffectual attempts were made by the American Govern- 
ment to purchase Texas from Mexico. It was obvious that the 
possession of it was absolutely necessary to the South, in order 
that her system might have freedom of expansion westwardly, 
and an equipoise be maintained with the North, in Congress. 
Adventurers were often encouraged by the prevailing public 
sentiment to emigrate to it, with the intention of detaching it 
forcibly from Mexico. The Anglo-Saxon traditions of these 
settlers were so at variance with Spanish institutions, that 
the fickle and dictatorial government of Santa Anna soon 
goaded them into rebellion. Many arbitrary acts on the part 
of the Mexican Government aided in the precipitation of this 
revolt, which, on account of the many internal dissensions, 
it was little able to counteract. 

"When the Federal Mexican Government abrogated the 
State Constitution, in 1835, thus despoiling the Texans of tho 
rights granted them by the Constitution of 1824, it precipi- 
tated a crisis. General Sam Houston, a Virginian by birth, 
led the Texans in their fight for independence. Santa Anna, 
whose * uninterrupted military successes had emboldened him 
to adopt the self-assumed title of the Napoleon of the West,* 
set out, in Feb., 1836, at the head of an army of 8,000 of the 
best troops of Mexico, to suppress the rebellion. The Texans 
were defeated at the Alamo and Goliad, and those of them 
who were taken prisoners of war were atrociously murdered 
in cold blood. The whole garrison of the Alamo was put to the 
sword. The Texans had hitherto belittled the valor of their 
antagonists, but the barbaric despotism of Santa Anna goaded 
them to fury and made peace impossible. On the 23d of 
April, 783 men, under General Houston, met the Dictator at 
the San Jacinto River, and after a battle which lasted only 
20 minutes, they captured the whole Mexican army, including 
Santa Anna. The character of this conflict may be understood 
from the statement that the Mexicans killed were 630, the 
wounded 208. Nothing but the firmness of the American com- 
mander saved Santa Anna from immediate execution. The 
Mexican President, thus constrained in his extremity, was 
obliged to acknowledge the independence of Texas. Hereupon 
he was liberated, and allowed to return to his country by way 
of the United States. This, he seemed in no hurry to do, and 
he did not return to Mexico City until nearly a year after his 
capture by the Texans. He then addressed a letter to the Mexi- 
can Secretary of War, disavowing all treaties and stipulations 
made with the Texans under duress. Meanwhile the new 



HISTORY AND RACES 63 

Republic of Texas was established in October, 1836, with a 
Constitution modelled on that of the United States, and with 
General Houston as its first President. The United States 
forthwith acknowledged its independence, as did France, 
England, and Belgium. The new Republic maintained its sep- 
arate existence until 1844. Repeated efforts were made to 
have it annexed to the U. S. A., and it soon became a political 
touchstone, an important point in American civil policy. 

"President Tyler, on the last day of his term of office, con- 
cluded a treaty with Texan representatives, by which Texas 
became a. State of the Union. This treaty was ratified by 
the American Congress in March, 1845. It was characterized 
by General Juan N. Almonte (who was captured at the San 
Jacinto River along with Santa Anna, and who was at this 
later period Mexican Minister at Washington) as an act of 
aggression, 'the most unjust which can be found in the annals 
of modern history.' This fiery general (who owed his life to 
the clemency of the then President of the annexed district) 
succeeded in arousing feelings of great bitterness in Mexico. 
Diplomatic relations between Texas and Mexico were sus- 
pended, General Almonte demanded his passport and returned 
to Mexico, and General Taylor, the United States commander 
in the Southwest, received orders to advance to the Rio 
Grande. The Mexican President Herrera issued a proclama- 
tion declaring the annexation a breach of international faith, 
and called upon the citizens of Mexico to rally to the defence 
of the territorial integrity of the country. 

"While General Taylor was approaching the Rio Grande, 
troops were sent north to enforce the claims of Mexico to the 
territory in dispute. 

"General Taylor reached the Rio Grande at Matamoros 
March 26, 1846, and m May the battles of Palo Alto (May 8) 
and Resaca de la Palma (May 9) were fought, resulting in 
victories for the Americans." 

On May 13, the American Congress appropriated $10,000,- 
000 for the prosecution of the war, and 50,000 volunteers 
were ordered to be raised. General Stephen W. Kearney was 
sent to occupy the then Mexican province of California, 
Colonel Doniphan was ordered to proceed southward toward 
Chihuahua, and General Scott to besiege Vera Cruz and 
march to the capital therefrom. Santa Anna, who had been 
in Cuba, in exile, returned to Mexico and took command of 
the Mexican army. This army was poorly equipped, and 
though the men fought with the coolness and bravery charac- 
teristic of the Mexican soldier, they were defeated on every 
hand. 

The battle of Sacramento was fought Feb. 28, 1847, and on 
March 2, Doniphan's command occupied Chihuahua. Mean- 
while a revolt had been excited in California against Mexican 



64 HISTORY AND RACES 

rule, and formal possession of the country was taken by Com- 
modore Stockton. On March 9, 1847, 12,000 men, under 
General Scott, were landed in a single evening at Vera Cruz, 
and after a five days' bombardment from sea and land the 
city surrendered, 5,000 prisoners and 500 pieces of cannon 
being taken. Scott now commenced his march to Mex. City 
along the National Road. Approaching the heights of Cerro 
Gordo, he found they were occupied by Santa Anna with 
15,000 men. In the attack that ensued the position was 
forced, 3,000 prisoners and 43 guns being captured. The Cas- 
tillo de Perote was soon taken, and on May 15, Worth's Divi- 
sion, numbering 4,000 men, camped in the Plaza of Puebla. 
Scott's army, now reduced to 4,290 men, was obliged to re- 
main in Puebla until August 7, awaiting reinforcements. 
These came, and the invading army, now amounting to 
11,000 men, marched through the Pass of Rio Frio and on 
toward the capital. 

On August 20, the Mexican outposts were taken, San An- 
tonio was captured, the fortified post of Churubusco was 
assaulted and gained, and the road leading to Mexico City 
was opened. In these operations the American loss in killed, 
wounded, and missing was 1,053. The Mexican loss was four 
times as great, and 37 guns were taken. 

Delayed by an armistice and by abortive negotiations for 
peace, it was not until Sept. 7 that Scott renewed active opera- 
tions for the possession of Chapultepec. Two formidable out- 
works, Molino del Rey and Casa Mata, were carried, though 
with severe loss, Chapultepec (comp. p. 381) was stormed and 
captured, and on Sept. 14, 1847, the flag of the United States 
was hoisted on the National Palace of Mexico. Scott made 
a triumphant entry into Mexico City at the head of less than 
6,000 troops. 

Meanwhile the battles of Buena Vista had been fought, 
Monterey was stormed and taken, and the Northern army of 
Mexico ruined. The capture of the City of Mexico was a de- 
cisive blow, and on Feb. 2, 1848, the Peace Treaty of Guada- 
lupe-Hidalgo was made. 

In this treaty New Mexico and Upper California, comprising 
522,955 square miles of territory, were ceded to the United 
States. The lower Rio Grande, from its mouth to El Paso, 
was taken as the boundary of Texas. The United States agreed 
to pay fifteen millions of dollars in five annual instalments. 
The claims of American citizens against Mexico, not exceed- 
ing three and a quarter millions of dollars, were also assumed. 
For a treaty dictated by a conquering army, in the capital 
of the nation treated with, this instrument stands unparalleled 
in history.^ 

1 The cost in money to the United States was $166,500,000; 25,000 
men were killed or died. 



HISTORY AND RACES 65 

I. Withdrawal of the American Army. Internecine Strife. 
Coincident with the retirement of the American army from 
Mexico, President Herrera removed his seat of government 
from Queretaro to the capital, and the sadly demoralized 
country set about perfecting the organization for future 
government and prosperity. For a year or more, the wise, 
economical, tolerant, and progressive Herrera was permitted 
to bind up the wounds caused by the war and to start the 
country once more on its way to peace and happiness. But 
during this period the disturbing elements in the social econ- 
omy of Mexico were only quiescent, in order that they might 
regain their wonted strength. 

General Mariano Arista was constitutionally elected Presi- 
dent in 1850, and was installed in oflSce in Jan., 1851. It was 
the first instance in the history of the Republic that a con- 
stitutionally-elected President had been allowed to take his 
seat. He began by reforming the army, and the clergy at once 
took alarm at his liberalism. In July, 1852, a revolution, 
fomented by the Conservatives, broke out in Guadalajara, 
spread to Chihuahua, and even as far south as Oaxaca. It 
took the name of the Plan del Hospicio. Arista, averse to 
involving his country in another civil war, and disheartened 
at the course affairs were taking, resigned the presidency, left 
the country, and died a year later, in poverty and obscurity, 
at Lisbon. Santa Anna, who had been temporarily squelched 
by the American invasion, again came into prominence, and 
on April 15, 1853, took the oath as President. An era of the 
most despotic absolutism ensued. The ecclesiastical party 
was once more uppermost, and the Jesuits were reestablished 
by a decree, dated May 1, 1853. The Dictator provided him- 
self with ample funds, by the sale to the United States, for 
ten millions of dollars, of a tract of land (border land amount- 
ing to 45,535 square miles), known as the Gadsden Purchase. 
He reestablished the Order of Guadalupe, originally instituted 
by the Emperor Iturbide, made himself the Grand Master 
thereof, and demanded that he be addressed as " Serene High- 
ness." On the 16th of Dec, 1853, he issued a decree declaring 
himself "Perpetual Dictator." A government was thereby 
established more absolute than any Mexico had ever known. 
The press was muzzled, high Liberals were imprisoned, and 
the "court" of the Dictator was filled with the most vicious 
members of society. Santa Anna's personal vanity carried 
him to the extent of madness, and hastened his downfall. 

A revolution, long brewing, broke out in Acapulco, and was 
called the Plan de Ayutla. It called for a Congress to form 
a new Constitution, by which a Federal Republican system 
would take the place of the Dictatorship established by Santa 
Anna. The leader of the plan was General Juan Alvarez, a 
revolutionary hero. It soon attracted the attention of Ignacio 



66 HISTORY AND RACES 

Comonfort, who promptly organized an army Sufficient in 
numbers to assmne the aggressive against the Dictator at the 
capital. Unable to stem the tide of popular discontent, Santa 
Anna secretly left the city on the 9th of Aug., 1855, and went 
into voluntary exile. Between the flight of Santa Anna and 
the election of Comonfort as President, Dec. 12, there were two 
Presidents and an incipient revolution at the capital. The 
latter of these Presidents, Juan Alvarez, arrived in the capital, 
with his body-guard of Indians, in Nov., and organized his 
government with Comonfort as his Minister of War, and Benito 
Juarez (comp. p. 338) as Minister of Justice and Ecclesiastical 
Relations. This government was destined to be of transcen- 
dental importance to the entire future life of the Republic. 
Benito Juarez had long studied the welfare of his country; 
with prophetic insight he had located the cancerous growth 
that for nearly four centuries had sapped the life, energy, and 
wealth of the nation. Quietly, but with true Indian dogged- 
ness, he cut straight at the heart of the evil. One of the first 
acts of this new government of men rather than of inflated 
puppets, was the passage (Nov. 23, 1855) of the Ley Juarez 
(not to be confounded with the Ley de Reforma), a law in- 
tended to regulate the administration of justice and the organ- 
ization of the courts of law. Its most significant feature was 
the suppression of special courts and the removal of the juris- 
diction, in civil cases, from military and ecclesiastical powers. 
■ ' One of the inheritances Mexico had received from the period 
of Spanish rule was the exclusive jurisdiction claimed by 
ecclesiastical and military courts in all cases, civil and criminal, 
in which clerics or soldiers were involved. The evils of such 
a system are easilj^ seen when it is considered that half the 
crimes committed in Mexico were by men amenable only to 
military courts, and that these courts were exceedingly lax 
in the administration of justice. More than a quarter of the 
landed property in the country belonged to clerics ; and even 
the women who kept house for them, and their servants, 
evaded the payment of just debts because the tradesmen 
could not enforce their claims in the civil courts." 

The ecclesiastics saw at once that the Ley Juarez meant 
an attack on the sacred rights of the Church, and they opposed 
it vigorously. This brought into prominence the Rev. Antonio 
Pelagio de Labastida y Ddvalos, Bishop of Michoacan, who had 
been but recently advanced to the Episcopate. He denounced 
as heretical the liberal doctrines promulgated, and threw all 
his influence against the Government. Despite the concen- 
trated opposition of the Church, Comonfort vigorously repressed 
both the army and the Church ; enforcing his decrees with the 
portion of the army that remained loyal to his Government. 
His next decisive step in the direction of reform was the 
famous Ley Lerdo, the production of Juarez and Ocampo, 



HISTORY AND RACES 67 

though revised and introduced in Congress by Miguel Lerdo 
de Tejada and passed on June 25, 1856. This law, known 
as El Decreto de (the decree of) Desamortizacidn (or .Mortmain 
Statute), circumscribed the authority of the Church, and or- 
dered the sale, at its assessed value, of all landed estate held 
by it. The Church was to receive the money proceeds of such 
sale, while the lands, passing into private hands, and freed 
of mortmain, would become part of the mobile and available 
wealth of the country at large. Up to the end of the year 
1856, the total value of property transferred under this decree, 
officially termed Ley de Desamortizacidn Civil y Eclesidstica, 
was over twenty millions of pesos. 

The Clericals made strenuous efforts to defeat this law. 
The Bishop of Puebla protested against the intervention of the 
Government in matters belonging to the Church, and preached 
sermons of a seditious character thereupon. The Archbishop 
of Mexico desired to submit the question to the Pope at Rome 
— a proposition which was at once indignantly refused by 
the Government of Mexico. A reactionary movement was 
organized in Puebla and 15,000 troops were mobilized by the 
Clericals. 

Comonfort not only acted with great promptness and decision 
in suppressing the revolution, but he issued a decree punish- 
ing the reactionary officers and causing the sequestration of 
enough of the Church property in the Diocese of Puebla to 
pay the expenses of the war, and to indemnify the Government 
for all damages sustained thereby. The Clericals throughout 
the land were stunned. Henceforth it was war to the knife 
between ignorance and superstition and progress and enlight- 
enment. The war-cry of the Clerical Reactionaries was Re' 
ligion y Fueros (Religion and Church Rights) . A conspiracy, 
fomented by the monks in the convent of San Francisco in 
Mexico City, was discovered Sept. 16, 1856, and the next day 
Comonfort decreed the closure of the convent, and through 
the convent garden he caused to be cut a wide street which was 
named " Independencia" (comp. p. 322). Another big section 
of the vast property of the San Franciscans was opened up, 
and was converted into what is now the Calle de Gante (p. 320) . 
"The clergy to some extent defeated the purposes of the Ley 
Lerdo by denouncing all who would purchase the lands of 
the Church under the law, and declaring that the 'Curse of 
God' would rest upon them because of their unholy] traffic in 
holy things. By these threats the public was restrained from 
purchasing at the Government sales, and few bidders were 
found with courage to risk the 'Curse.' Those who bought 
in the property at low figures made fortunes at slight outlay, 
albeit they gained the bitter enmity of the Church. All this 
served to make the task of the Government more difficult." 
(Noll, Empire to Republic.) 



68 HISTORY AND RACES 

A new Constitution, framed by Congress and subscribed 
to by Comonfort, was adopted Feb. 5, much to the chagrin 
of the Church Party. The Bishops throughout the country 
denounced it, and certain high officials in Mexico City were 
excommunicated. This Constitution (substantially that of 
Mexico to-day) was a direct affront to the Church. No sooner 
was it published than great excitement prevailed in all parts 
of the country, and wherever the clergy were dominant, 
the people were incited to rebellion. An allocution was re- 
ceived from Pope Pius IX, declaring the Government of 
Mexico apocrypha, and putting it under the anathema of the 
Church. The hitherto stanch Comonfort wavered beneath 
the powerful influence brought to bear upon him, and ten 
days after he had sworn to support the Constitution he gave 
way to the Clerical Party, set aside the Constitution, and 
tried to resume government under the "Bases of Political 
Organization" of 1843. To further placate the Church Party 
he cast Benito Juarez (Minister of Domestic Relations) into 
prison. When too late he tried to correct his mistake. He 
released Juarez, restored the Constitution, reorganized the 
National Guard, and took steps to suppress the insurrection 
in the capital. Failing to undo what he had done, he fore- 
saw his own downfall and left the country Feb. 5, 1858. 
Immediately upon the flight of Comonfort the Reactionary 
Party proclaimed Felix Zuloaga President. The Liberals, 
assembled in Quer^taro, organized imder the Constitution of 
1857, recognized Benito Juarez as Constitutional President, 
and had him installed on the 10th of Jan., 1858, several days 
before the election of Zuloaga. Juarez at once departed for 
Guadalajara, where he organized his government. During 
the troublous times that followed in Mexico City, Juarez 
went to the Pacific Coast, thence to the United States, and 
returned to Vera Cruz. Here he maintained his government 
for three years. The Reactionaries, who succeeded in holding 
the capital, governed the country by a succession of what 
are now termed "Anti-Presidents." 

m. The War of the Reform (La Guerra de la Reformd), 
the culmination of the long struggle between the Conserva- 
tive Clerical Party and the Liberal and Progressive Fac- 
tion, lasted from 1855 to 1861, and was characterized by the 
cruelty which is usually a feature of wars wherein religious 
fanatics are engaged. It was precipitated by the Ley Juarez, 
and though bitterly contested and prolonged by the enorm- 
ous accumulated wealth of the clergy, it was decisive, for 
it wrested Mexico forever from the crippling grip of the 
friars, and launched it on its present career of usefulness 
and enlightenment. The motto of the reactionary opposi- 
tion was religion y fueros, the clergy themselves promoting 
revolution with the aid of the discontented military. The 



HISTORY AND RACES gg 

reactionists plunged into the fight with the zeal of those who 
reahze that their all is at stake, and civil war soon flamed 
in many parts of the Republic. General Miguel Miramon, 
one of the anti-Presidents, led the reaccionarios, and was 
for a time successful. Benito Juarez and his adherents, the 
Juanstas, fought their opponents all over the country 
and finding Vera Cruz the best point from which to con- 
duct his campaign, Juarez estabhshed his government there 
(in 1858), and based his claims on the Constitution of 1857. 
Engagements were hotly contested at Quer^taro, San Luis 
Potosi, Las Cuevitas, Pachuca, Perote, and Ahualulco. Prior 
to these, the clergy at Puebla revolted, under the leadership 
of Bishop Haro, and that town was the scene of battles and 
sieges. Juarez narrowly escaped execution at Guadalajara 
m 1857, and by the capture of Zacatecas, General Leandro 
Marquez attained eminence as a reactionary leader, and began 
a career of cruelty scarcely paralleled m Mexican history. 

Encouraged by his successes, Miramon attempted (Feb., 
1859) to capture Vera Cruz, the seat of the Constitutional 
Government : for a month he ineffectually besieged the port, 
and was then forced to hurry to the capital, which was 
threatened by the Juaristas. A furious battle was fought 
at Tacubaya, and General Marquez, not content with victory, 
executed a number of prisoners, among them six physicians 
who had gone from the capital to care for the wounded 
Juaristas. This exploit gamed him the title of El Tigre 
(tiger) de Tacubaya, and for the town, the title of Tacubaya de 
las Mdrtires. 

^ Early in 1860, Miramon returned to his design of captur- 
mg Vera Cruz, and in March — after having borrowed 
$300,000 from the clergy at Mexico City — he appeared 
before that port. In preparing to besiege the city he sent to 
Havana and purchased two steam vessels and munitions of 
war, to be brought to V. C. to cooperate with his land 
forces. The approach of these two vessels (the General 
Miramon and the Marquis de la Habana) was disputed by 
the squadrons of other nations, then in the port of V. C, 
and as they were unable to show ship's papers, they were 
regarded as semi-piratical. Juarez requested the United 
States squadron to examine the papers of the two vessels, 
and m the attempt to do so the General Miramon made some 
resistance and a U. S. frigate was fired upon. The commander 
at once seized the ships and took them to New Orleans 
for further investigation. The delay gained by their deten- 
tion was valuable to the Juaristas, resulting in Miramon's 
failure in his attack on V. C. Later the siege was renewed 
and the town was bombarded from the 15th to the 20th of 
March. March 21, the siege was raised, and the disgusted 
reactionists returned to the capital. 



70 HISTORY AND RACES 

On July 12, when the prospects of victory seemed the most 
doubtful, Juarez showed his Indian doggedness and his belief 
in a just cause by issuing the celebrated Leyes de Reforma 
(Reform Laws), the most transcendental decrees issued by 
a Mexican up to that time. They contributed greatly toward 
the ending of the war. These laws deprived the reactionaries 
of their resources and broke the power of the party. They 
provided for religious toleration, for the general curtailment 
of the power of the clergy in the exercise of their alleged 
rights, exclaustrated conventual holdings, adjusted the law 
of civil marriage, and secularized the cemeteries. Religious 
orders and religious communities were dissolved, as being 
contrary to public welfare. The nation was entitled to pos- 
sess all the properties of the clergy, both religious and sec- 
ular, and the Church was denied the right to possess landed 
properties. Church and State were separated, and religious 
freedom of thought was established. The clergy were disal- 
lowed a stipend from the State, and were thenceforth to 
receive such compensation for their services as might be vol- 
untarily bestowed by their parishioners. Marriage, by being 
considered a civil contract only, was freed from restraints 
and expenses previously imposed upon it by the clergy — 
a provision far-reaching in its power for good. The opera- 
tion of the law converted the country from the position of an 
immense priest-ridden camp to that of a free nation.^ 

The Church did not submit tamely to this tremendous 
edict. It had ruled the helpless people for over three cea- 

* The wealth of the Church in Mexico, says an authority, was astound- 
ing. A census taken 15 years previously had estimated that there were 
2,000 nuns, 1,700 monks, and 3,500 secular clergy in Mexico, and that the 
number of their conventual estates was 150. The nuns alone possessed 
68 estates, or properties, producing an annual revenue of $560,000; in 
addition to a floating capital of $4,500,000. producing an annual income 
of $250,000. While the above number of clergy was inadequate to the 
spiritual needs of a population estimated at seven millions, it was small 
indeed to be the possessor of estates worth at least $90,000,000, which, at 
that time, was said to be at least one third of all the wealth in Mexico. 
Huge convents occupied a considerable part of the site of Mexico City, 
Puebla, Morelia, Guadalajara, Quer^taro, and other cities. A portion of 
the income of the convents was derived from endowments, amounting to a 
large sum. To support the high ecclesiastics, great amounts were derived 
from tithes. The Archbishop of Mexico had an income of $130,000 a year; 
the Bishop of Puebla, $110,000; of Michoacan, $100,000; and of Guada- 
lajara, $90,000. Mexico City was more like a great religious camp than a 
mercantile centre. The enormous wealth of the Church made it a very 
prominent factor in politics, and it could upset and establish governments 
at its pleasure, or ferment the many revolutions which were constantly 
breaking out. When the Mexicans rose in their war for independence, the 
royal authorities took a portion of the Church's wealth — which had been 
wrung from the Mexicans — to defeat them in their struggle. 

Mexico City owes many of its fine streets to the Reform Laws, which 
enabled the Government to demolish churches and convents and cut 
avenues through their spacious grounds. 

There are said to be over ten thousand churches and chapels at pre- 
sent in Mexico which are subject to Roman Catholic control. 



HISTORY AnD RACES 71 

times, and it now stirred up the national strife to the extent 
of pitting members of the same family against each other. 
It threw the religion-loving people into a panic by threaten- 
mg to excommunicate all who professed Liberal ideas. The 
priests so crazed the populace that the temporary ambition 
of every Mexican seemed to be to kill some one. Nearly two 
hundred thousand Mexicans were engaged in the war, and the 
loss of life was appalHng. The conflict between the Liberals 
and the Conservatives waged in nearly every section of the 
country. The roads swarmed with handidos, and the con- 
dition of the country was deplorable. 

But in the quiet, stern, far-seeing Indian from Oaxaca the 
Church in New Spain found its Waterloo. The task which 
confronted Juarez would have staggered a less determined 
man. One of his first acts, after he entered the capital, 
Jan. 11, 1861, was to banish the Bishops and with them the 
Papal Nuncio and the Spanish Envoy. The properties left 
to the Church were confiscated, and former clerical estates 
were let out to farmers on payment of 12% of their values. 
Archbishop La Bastida, ex-President Miramon, and other 
Conservatives went to Paris, and from there still planned 
the undoing of long-suffering Mexico. An act o! doubtful 
statesmanship on the part of the new Congress aided them 
in their plans. In July, 1861, Congress approved the decree 
issued by the President suspending, for two years, all pay- 
ments on account of foreign debts. Juarez was heart and 
soul for Mexico — the stanch friend of the United States, 
but suspicious of Europe. Mexico at this time owed Great 
Britain some $50,000,000, contracted by the splendor-loving 
Santa Anna during his meteoric career. Financial ruin stared 
Mexico in the face, and Juarez meant well for the country 
when he suspended interest on this foreign debt.. Two years 
would enable him to bring order out of chaos, and then a 
progressive Mexico could easily meet its obligations. But 
this suspension gave the ecclesiastical malcontents the open- 
ing they desired, and paved the way for — 

n. The French Intervention, Maximilian and the Sec- 
ond Empire. "For a better understanding of the causes 
which led up to the execution of this unfortunate Prince of 
the House of Hapsburg, it is well to recall that after the 
peace of Villafranca, the Emperor Napoleon III was sin- 
cerely desirous to heal the political wounds which had been 
made by his mihtary operations in Italy, and to find some 
compensation for the injuries he ha'd inflicted on the Em- 
peror of Austria. 

"From certain eminent Mexicans who were residing in Paris, 
among them La Bastida, the ex-Archbishop of Mexico; the 
ex-President Miramon, Gutierrez de Estrada, s^nd Almonte — the 
Emperor learned that various Papal intrigues were imder way 



72 HISTORY AND RACES 

and that attempts had been made by leaders of influence in 
the then secedmg Southern States of America to come to 
an understanding with persons of similar position in Mexico 
with a view to a political union. 

" Among the advantages expected by the Southern States 
from such a scheme was the alluring prospect of a future bril- 
liant empire, encircling the West India Seas, and eventually 
absorbing the West India Islands. To the Mexicans there 
would be the advantage of a stable and progressive govern- 
ment, with an emperor at its head, and the cessation of the 
internecine strife that had long torn the country. The Mexi- 
can refugees in Paris saw in the success of this scheme an 
end of their influence in their native country, and they con- 
sidered it better for them to induce a French protectorate. 
The Emperor saw in this an opportunity for carrying out 
his friendly intentions toward the House of Austria. He im- 
mediately determined to encourage the secession of the South- 
ern Confederate States with the view of curtailing the power 
of the North, to overthrow, by a military expedition, the 
existing Government of Juarez in Mexico, to establish by 
French arms an empire, and to offer its crown to the Aus- 
trian Archduke Maximilian.^ 

" To separate the Union for the purpose of crippling it, but 
not to give such a preponderance to the South as to enable 
it to consummate its Mexican designs, was the guiding aim 
of the French Government. That principle was satisfied by 
the recognition of belhgerent rights, and by avoiding a recog- 
nition of independence. The French expedition was thus 
based on the disruption of the United States — a disruption 
considered not only by the Spanish Court and by the Em- 
peror Napoleon as inevitable, but even by the British Gov- 
ernment. 

" The Spanish Minister in Paris, in November, 1858, had 
suggested to the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, the 
advantages that would accrue from the establishment of 
a strong government in Mexico. Subsequently the views of 
the English Government were ascertained, and in April, 
1860, the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs stated that 
France and England were looking favorably upon the matter. 
The stumbling-block in the way was the opposition which 
might be expected from the United States. That opposition 
was embodied in a formula under the designation of the 
Monroe Doctrine, which expressed a determination not to 
permit the interference of European Powers on the North 
American Continent. 

" In April, 1860, the project having advanced sufficiently, 
Lord John Russell informed Isturitz, the Spanish Minister, 

1 History of the American Civil War, by John William Draper, M.D.; 
LL.D. (N. Y., 1870). 



HISTORY AND RACES 73 

that England would require the protection of the Protestant 
worship in Mexico. The project was characterized by the 
selfishness which is usually the underlying principle of all 
nations, and the aims of the three contracting parties event- 
ually became apparent. Spain expected that a Bourbon 
prince would be placed on the Mexican throne, and that she 
would thereby recover her ancient prestige and bind more 
securely to her the valuable island of Cuba. ^ Perhaps she 
might even recover Mexico itself, and again bind that free- 
dom-loving country in the chains of the ignorance and tyr- 
anny which were its lot during Spanish dominion and mis- 
rule. England, remembering the annexation of Texas, saw 
that it was desirable to limit the ever-threatening progress of 
the Republic westwardly; to prevent the encircling of the 
West India Seas by a power which, possibly becoming hostile, 
might disturb the rich islands she held ; nor was she insensible 
to the importance of partitioning what seemed to be the 
cotton-field of the world. France anticipated — but the 
Emperor himself, concealing his real motive of compensating 
Austria for his Italian victories, has given us his ostensible 
expectations in a letter to General Forey. 

"In this letter, dated July 3, 1862, Napoleon III says: 
* There will not be wanting people who will ask you why 
we expend men and money to found a regular government 
in Mexico. In the present state of the civilization of the 
world, the prosperity of America is not a matter of indifference 
to Europe, for it is the country which feeds our manufac- 
tures and gives an impulse to our commerce. We have an 
interest in the Republic of the United States being powerful 
and prosperous, but not that she should take possession of 
the whole Gulf of Mexico, thence commanding the Antilles 
as well as South America, and be the only dispenser of the 

Eroducts of the New World. We now see by sad experience 
ow precarious is the lot of a branch of manufactures which 
is compelled to produce its raw material in a single market, 
all the vicissitudes of which it has to bear. If, on the con- 
trary, Mexico maintains her independence and the integrity 
of her territory, if a stable government be there estabUshed 
with the assistance of France, we shall have restored to the 
Latin race on the other side of the Atlantic all its strength 
and prestige; we shall have guaranteed security to our West 
India colonies and to those of Spain ; we shall have estab- 
lished a friendly influence in the centre of America, and 
that influence, by creating numerous markets for our com- 
merce, will procure us the raw materials indispensable for 
our manufactures. Mexico, thus regenerated, will always 
be well disposed to us, not only out of gratitude, but because 
her interests will be in accord with ours, and because she 
will find support in her friendly relations with European 



74 HISTORY AND RA(^S 

Powers. At present, therefore, our military honor engaged, 
the necessities of our policy, the interests of our industry 
and commerce, all conspire to make it our duty to march 
on Mexico, boldly to plant our flag there, and to establish 
either a monarchy, if not incompatible with the national 
feeling, or at least a government which may promise some 
stability.' 

" As soon as it was ascertained that the Southern States 
were sufficiently powerful to resist the National Government, 
and that a partition of the Union was impending, the chief 
obstacle in the way of the Mexican movement seemed to be 
removed. Throughout the spring and summer of 1861, the 
three contracting powers kept that result steadfastly in 
mind, and omitted nothing that might tend to its accom- 

Elishment. This was the true reason of the concession of 
elligerent rights to the Southern Confederacy in May. 
The downfall of Juarez was the next business in hand. 

" Affairs had so far progressed that, on November 20, 1861, 
a convention was signed in London between France, England, 
and Spain. In this it was agreed that a joint force should be 
sent by the three allies to Mexico ; that no special advantages 
should be sought for by them individually, and no internal 
influence on Mexico exerted. A commission was designated 
to distribute the indemnity they proposed to exact. The 
ostensible reason put forth for the movement was the decree 
of the Mexican Government, July 17, 1861, suspending pay- 
ment on the foreign debt. 

" The allied expedition reached Vera Cruz about the end 
of the year. Not without justice did the Mexican Minister 
for Foreign Affairs complain of their 'friendly but inde- 
finite promises, the real object of which nobody unravels.' 
Although M. Thouvenel was incessantly assuring the British 
Government, even as late as May, 1862, that France had no 
intentions of imposing a government on Mexico, it became 
obvious that there was no more sincerity in this engagement 
than there had been in imputing the grievances of the invaders 
to the Mexican decree of the preceding July. The ostensible 
cause was a mere pretext to get a military foothold in the 
country. Very soon, however, it became impossible for 
the French to conceal their intentions. England and Spain 
withdrew from the expedition, the alleged cause on the part 
of the former being the presence of Almonte, and other 
Mexican emigrants of known monarchical opinions, with the 
French, and a resolution not to join in military operations in 
the interior of the country; on the part of the latter, the true 
reason was that not a Spanish prince, but Maximilian, was 
to be placed on the Mexican throne — a disappointment 
to the Spanish commander, the Count de Reuss (General 
Prim), who had pictured for himself a viceroy's coronet. 



HISTORY AND RACES 75 

" The French entered the City of Mexico in July, 1863. 
The time had now come for throwing off the mask, and the 
name of Maximilian was introduced as a candidate for the 
empire. Commissioners were appointed to go through Paris 
and Rome to Miramar with a view of sohciting the consent 
of that Prince. A regency was appointed until he could be 
heard from. It consisted of Almonte, Salas, and the Arch- 
bishop La Bastida. Maximilian had already covenanted 
with the Pope to restore to the Mexican Church her mort- 
main property, estimated at two hundred millions of dollars. 
In Mexico there were but two parties, the Liberal and the 
Ecclesiastical. The latter was concihated by that covenant : 
but as to the national sentiment, the collection of suffrages 
in behalf of the new empire was nothing better than a mere 
farce. 

" An empire was established in Mexico. Well might the 
leaders of the Southern Confederacy be thunderstruck! Was 
this the fulfilment of that promise which had lured them into 
the gulf of revolt — the promise which had been used with such 
fatal effect in Charleston? Well might it be expected in 
France, as is stated by Keratry, that ' the Confederates pro- 

Eosed to avenge themselves for the overthrow of the secret 
opes which had been encouraged from the very outset of the 
contest by the cabinet of the Tuileries, which had accorded 
to them the belligerent character, and had, after all, aban- 
doned them.' 

" Yet no one in America, either of the Northern or the 
Southern States, imputed blame to the French people in these 
bloody and dark transactions. All saw clearly on whom the 
responsibility rested. And when, in the course of events, it 
seemed to become necessary that the French army should 
leave Mexico, it was the general desire that nothing should be 
done which might by any possibility touch the sensibilities 
of France. But the Republic of the West was forever alienated 
from the dynasty of Napoleon. 

" Events showed that the persons who were charged with the 
administration of the Richmond Government had not ability 
equal to their task. The South did not select her best men. 
In the unskilful hands of those who had charge of it, secession 
proved to be a failure. The Confederate resources were reck- 
lessly squandered, not skilfully used. Ruin was provoked. 

" When it became plain that the American Republic was 
about to triumph over its domestic enemies in the Civil War, 
and that it was in possession of irresistible military power, 
they who in the Tuileries had plotted the rise of Maximilian in 
1861, now plotted his ruin. The betrayed emperor found that 
in that palace two languages were spoken. In the agony of 
his soul he exclakned, * I am tricked ! ' In vain his princess 
crossed the Atlantic, and though denied access, forced her 



76 HISTORY AND RACES 

way into the presence of Napoleon III, in her frantic grief 
upbraiding herself before him that, in accepting a throne 
from his hand, she had forgotten that she was a daughter of 
the race of Orleans ^ — in vain she fell at the feet of the Pope 
deliriously imploring his succor. 

" The American Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, adopted a 
firm but dignified course with the French Government. With 
a courteous audacity, he did not withhold his doubts as to 
the sincerity and fidelity of the Emperor; with inexorable 
persistence he demanded categorically that the French occu- 
pation should come to an end. A date once set, he held the 
French Government to its word. 'Tell M. Moustier,' he says, 
in a despatch to the American Minister in Paris, 'that our 
Government is astonished and distressed at the announce- 
ment, now made for the first time, that the promised with- 
drawal of French troops from Mexico, which ought to have 
taken place in November (this month), has been put off by 
the Emperor. You will inform the Emperor's Government 
that the President desires and sincerely hopes that the evac- 
uation of Mexico wUl be accomplished in conformity with 
the existing arrangement, so far as the inopportune complica- 
tion necessitating this despatch will permit. On this point 
Mr. Campbell will receive instructions. Instructions will also be 
sent to the military forces of the United States, which are 
placed in a spot of observation, and are waiting the special 
orders of the President: and this will be done with the con- 
fidence that the telegraph or the courier will bring us intelli- 
gence of a satisfactory resolution on the part of the Emperor 
in reply to this note. You will assure the French Government 
that the United States, in wishing to free Mexico, have no- 
thing so much at heart as preserving peace and friendship 
with France.' 

" The French recognized that the position of the two nations 
had become inverted. The United States now gave orders. 
Even by the French themselves it was said, 'The United 
States tracked French policy step by step; never had the 
French Government been subject to such a tyrannical dic- 
tation. Formerly France had spoken boldly, saying, through 
M. Drooyn de Lhuy to Mr. Dayton, the American representa- 
tive at Paris, " Do you bring us peace or war ? " Now Maxi- 
milian is falling in obedience to orders from Washington. He 
is falling a victim to the weakness of our Government in al- 
lowing its conduct to be dictated by American arrogance. 
Indeed, before rushing into such perilous contingencies, might 
not the attitude of the United States have been easily fore- 
seen? Our statesmen needed no rare perspicuity to have dis- 

1 Marie Carlota Amelie (born near Brussels June 7, 1840) was the 
daughter of Leopold I, King of Belgium. She married Maximilian June 
27, 1857. 



HISTORY AND RACES 77 

covered the dark shadow of the Northern Republic looming 
up on the horizon over the Rio Bravo frontier, and only biding 
its time to make its appearance on the scene.' 

''Only one thing was now thought of in Paris, and that 
was to leave as soon as possible this land of destroyed illu- 
sions and bitter sacrifices. Was there ever such a catalogue 
of disappointed expectations as is presented in this Mexican 
tragedy? The Southern secession leaders engaged in dreaming 
of a tropical empire which they never realized: they hoped it 
would bring a recognition of their independence, and they 
were betrayed. The English were beguiled into it as a means 
of checking the growth of a commercial rival, and of protect- 
ing their West Indian possessions. They were duped into the 
belief that there was no purpose of interfering with the Gov- 
ernment of Mexico. They consented to the perilous measures 
of admitting the belligerent rights of the South. They lent 
what aid they could to the partition of a nation with which 
they were at peace. They found that the secret intention was 
the establishment of an empire in the interests of France, the 
conciliation of Austria for military reverses in Italy, and the 
curbing of the Anglo-Saxon by the Latin race. England ex- 

Eected to destroy a democracy, and has gathered her reward by 
ecoming more democratic herself. The Pope gave his coun- 
tenance to the plot, having received a promise of the eleva- 
tion of the Mexican Church to her pristine splendor, and the 
restoration of her mortmain estates; but the Archbishop La 
Bastida, who was one of the three regents representing her 
great influence, was insulted and removed from his political 
office by the French. In impotent retaliation, he discharged 
at his assailants the rusty ecclesiastical blunderbuss of past 
days — he excommunicated the French army. The Span- 
iards did not regain their former colony; the brow of the 
Count de Reuss was never adorned with a vice-regal coro- 
net. The noble and devoted wife of Maximilian was made a 
wanderer in the sight of all Europe, her diadem removed, her 
reason dethroned. 

" For Maximilian himself there was not reserved the pagean- 
try of an imperial court in the Indian palaces of Montezuma, 
but the death-volley of a grim file of Mexican soldiers, under 
the frowning shadow of the heights of Quer^taro. For the 
Emperor of Austria, there was not the homage of a transat- 
lantic crown ; Mexico sent him across the ocean, a coffin and 
a corpse. For France, ever great and just, in whose name 
so many crimes were perpetrated, but who is responsible 
for none of them, there was a loss of that which in her eyes 
is of infinitely more value than the six hundred millions of 
francs which were cast into this Mexican abyss. For the 
Ernperor — can anjrthing be more terrible than the despatch 
which was sent to America at the close of the great Exposi- 



78 HISTORY AND RACES 

tion? — ' There remain now no sovereigns in Paris except the 
Emperor Napoleon III and the spectre of Maximilian at his 
elbow.' " 

Toward the close of December the Spanish squadron cast 
anchor in the harbor of Vera Cruz. Early in January, 1862, 
English and French war-ships arrived. They jointly took 
possession of the port, and sent a note to the Mexican Gov- 
ernment explaining the ostensible causes and aims of the 
expedition. The Government invited them to a conference 
having for its aim the reaching of an amicable settlement. 
This conference was held in Orizaba. As the Mexican Govern- 
ment was unprepared for war with a foreign power, it was 
agreed that the allies should hold Cordoba, Orizaba, and 
Tehuacan pending a satisfactory adjustment. If an agree- 
ment were not reached, the allies were^to retire to the coast 
before beginning hostilities. 

While negotiations were in progress, the commissioners of 
the English and Spanish Governments (April 9) announced 
their intention to withdraw and reembark their troops. This 
was done as speedily as possible. The French commissioner 
declared it was the intention of his government to push the 
enterprise to completion. 

Violating their agreement to retire to the coast, they awaited 
reinforcements, which arrived under the command of Gen- 
eral Lorencez. At the head of six thousand men he marched 
toward the capital. He appeared before Puebla May 4, and 
on May 5, began the assault of the city. He was defeated 
by General Zaragoza at the head of 4,000 Mexican troops. 

The French again attacked Puebla, which was heroically 
defended by Gonzales Ortega with 12,000 men, aided by Gen- 
eral Comonfort with a strong outlying division. On May 8, 
Bazaine routed Comonfort, and on the 17th Puebla capitu- 
lated to vastly superior forces. The French continued their 
march to the capital. President Juarez, after issuing a mani- 
festo to the nation, exhorting them to continue the struggle, 
abandoned the city May 31. He retired toward the north, ac- 
companied by troops under Generals Don Porfirio Diaz and 
Don Juan Jose de la Garza. 

On June 11, Mexico City was oflScially occupied by the 
French troops. The Conservative Party accorded General 
Forey an enthusiastic reception. A junta composed of 35 
members of the Conservative Party was formed, and they in 
turn created another junta with the title of Regencia and 
headed by Don Juan Almonte, one of the most active agents 
in the establishment of the monarchy in Mexico. 

On June 10, 1863, a junta convoked by General Forey and 
composed of 200 adherents of the Conservative Party form- 
ally declared : — 

" The Nation accepts an hereditary monarchy headed by a 



HISTORY AND RACES 79 

Catholic prince who will bear the title of Emperor. It off era 
the crown to Archduke Fernando Maximilian of Austria." 

Meanwhile Juarez had established his temporary govern- 
ment in San Luis Potosi, whence, on June 10, it moved to 
Saltillo. Later it moved to Chihuahua, and thence to Paso 
del Norte, now Ciudad Juarez. 

Maximilian accepted the crown of the new empire in con- 
sideration of three million pesos advanced by Napoleon III 
to enable him to pay some of his debts. The compact was 
signed at the Chateau of Miramar, April 10, 1864. From that 
date his allowance was $125,000 a month: that of Carlota 
$16,666.66, making a sum total of $1,700,000 annually paid 
by impoverished Mexico for the privilege of having its dis- 
tracted country mismanaged by a foreign potentate. 

The Archduke and his consort embarked on the Austrian 
war-ship La Novara, April 14, 1864. Arriving at Civita- 
Vecchia they went direct to Rome, where they lodged at the 
Palacio Marescotta. After a visit from the King of Naples 
and Cardinal Antonelli, they attended a special mass at the 
Vatican, received the communion from the hands of the Pope, 
and sailed for Mexico April 20. 

On May 28, La Novara dropped anchor in the harbor of 
Vera Cruz. The next morning Maximilian and his suite dis- 
embarked and received the keys of the city. Gayly decorated 
carriages conveyed them up the mountains to Cordoba and 
Orizaba, where they were received with flowers and acclama- 
tions. They arrived at Puebla June 5, where a great celebra- 
tion was held (the 7th) in honor of Carlota's birthday. They 
passed the night of the 11th at Guadalupe, and made their 
triumphal entry into the capital on the morning of June 12.^ 

Coincident with the arrival of MaximiUan, the monarchical 
form of government began its functions. Troubles also arose. 
The Archduke was not lacking in advanced ideas, and from 
the first he essayed to win the good will of the Liberals, 
a difficult task in view of their intense hostility to the Con- 
servatives whom the Emperor represented. In turn he gained 
the ill will of the Conservatives by refusing to annul or modify 
the Leyes de Reforma. 

Money was the shibboleth of his brief reign. The extra- 
vagant etiquette of the Austrian Court was implanted in the 
Aztec capital, and it became the theatre of glittering court 

1 In view of the fact that one of the ostensible causes of the French in- 
tervention was the decree repudiating Mexico's foreign debts (because of 
her inability to pay them), it is interesting to note the minor expendi- 
tures consequent to bringing Maximilian and his suite to Mexico. 
Given to various persons to induce the Emperor to come . $104,902.32 
Furniture and improvements in the Palace at Mexico . . 101,011.83 
Furniture and art objects for Chapultepec and Orizaba . . 15,210.50 

Reception at Vera Cruz and Mexico City 115,348.41 

Total . . $336,473.06 



80 HISTORY AND RACES 

balls, regal receptions, and splendid social functions. To meet 
the ever-increasing expenses of the lavish court, loans were 
contracted in Paris and London, and valuable franchises were 
sold to the foreign adventurers who flocked to the seat of the 
new empire. 

In marked contrast to affairs at the capital, turmoil reigned 
in the interior cities and towns. In those garrisoned by a 
sufficient number of French troops, an illusory peace was 
maintained by force of arms. A perpetual guerrilla warfare 
was waged in many of the country districts. At first the 
Mexicans suffered heavily at the hands of the French, but 
the revolutionists gained strength, and in 1866 disquieting 
rumors reached the capital and disturbed the Emperor in 
his fancied security. 

With a woman's perspicacity, the Empress detected the trend 
of events and she proposed a trip to Paris and Rome, with the 
aim of urging Napoleon III to fulfil the promises made at 
Miramar, and to invite the aid of the Pope to unravel the 
ecclesiastical tangle which perplexed the struggling monarchy. 

On July 6 a special Te Deum was held in the Cathedral, and on 
the 13th the Empress embarked at Vera Cruz on the Emperor- 
triz Eugenia. When she left Llexico she turned her back upon 
her husband and an imperial diadem, both forever lost to her. 

Napoleon received the Empress coldly. Both indulged in 
violent and acrimonious recrimination ; the Emperor refus- 
ing absolutely to furnish further resources, whether military 
or pecuniary. The interview served only to strain the already 
tenuous relations between Napoleon and Maximilian. The 
vainglorious French Emperor had his own troubles. Spurred 
and vexed by the veiled orders of the United States to with- 
draw his troops from American soil, he sought but the means 
to comply and preserve his dignity. The soldiers themselves 
were constantly harassed by the Mexican guerrillas, and they 
yearned for La Belle France and for the cessation of a boot- 
less struggle on alien soil. 

A victim to the darkest forebodings, the unhappy Empress 
repaired to Miramar, where, on the 16th of Sept., a banquet 
celebrating the Independence of Mexico was given. Unwill- 
ing to relinquish the Mexican crown and again be merely 
an Archduchess of Austria, the ambitious woman started for 
Rome with all her hopes centred in the Pope. She made 
her official visit to the Vatican on September 27. On being 
received by the Pontiff she fell into a nervous paroxysm, and 
as if possessed of an awful terror she exclaimed: "I have 
been poisoned by order of Napoleon III, and those without 
have accomplished it."^ Hope had died out of her proud 
heart and her reason went with it. 

1 There are Mexicans who say the Empress was secretly poisoned with 
Marihuana (a deadly native drug) before she departed from Mexico 



HISTORY AND RACES 81 

The sad notice all but crushed Maximilian, and his sole 
remaining ambition was to leave Mexico and reach the side 
of his unfortunate wife. Prevailed upon by the Conservative 
Party to remain, he did so, and unwittingly sealed his own fate. 

The year 1867 opened menacingly for the empire. The 
Liberal forces in the north had captured town after town. 
Napoleon had named early spring as the date for the with- 
drawal of his troops, but the urgency of Mr. Seward and the 
interview with the Empress Carlota hastened his plans, 
and the last of the French troops reached Mexico City Jan. 
15, homeward bound. On Feb. 5, the French flag was hauled 
down from over the home of the Marshal, in Buena Vista 
(p. 340), and the army filed out of the city. From behind the 
curtained window of the palace, Maximilian watched its de- 
parture in silence. 

Hard-pushed by the Liberals, the generals of the Imperial- 
ist cause had united in Quer^taro. Accompanied by his 
Ministers of State, aides, doctor, secretary, and two thousand 
armed men under General Leonardo Marquez, Maximilian 
left the capital Feb. 13. A special Te Deum was sung in the 
Cathedral at Quer^taro the day of his arrival. On the same 
day General Mendez arrived on his retreat from Morelia. 
On March 20, Queretaro was closely besieged by the Liberal 
forces. 

When the Emperor left Mexico City, he believed he was to 
lead a campaign against the enemy. Great was his surprise 
to learn that he had deliberately entered a beleaguered city, 
now completely surrounded by Liberal troops under Generals 
Escobedo and Corona. Once trapped, his position was peril- 
ous. Numerous but ineffectual attempts were made to break 
the cordon. Ammunition grew scarce, rations diminished, and 
the city was taken by the Republican forces May 15. Max- 
imilian, Miramon, and Mejia were imprisoned in a cell in the 
existing Capuchin Convent. The court-martial that tried 
them was convened in the Yturbide Theatre at 10 a. m., June 
14. The Emperor was suffering from an acute attack of Ulness 
and was not present. On June 15, the court united in a sen- 
tence of death. 



When she made her piteous appeal for help to Napoleon III, she was 
quite sane, though sadly wrought up by intense emotion, but failure un- 
hinged her mind, and when she hurried off to the Pope, she was demented. 
To the horror of the Papal Court, she burst into the presence of His Holi- 
ness wearing a bonnet instead of the black mantilla rigorously insisted 
upon in such an audience; and to the still greater horror of Cardinal 
Antonelli and of the Pope himself, she insisted on staying overnight at 
the Vatican. As, however, force could not be used to eject her, the Pope 
had to order two beds to be placed in the library for the Empress and one 
of her ladies — an unheard-of desecration! Indeed, they could get rid of 
the hapless Empress next day only by the ruse of getting two nuns to 
persuade her to visit their convent, where she became so violent that she 
had to be put into a strait-jacket I 



82 HISTORY AND RACES 

The President of the United States and the sovereigns of 
Great Britain, France, and Austria tried to save his life. 
Victor Hugo wrote Juarez a strong and stirring appeal, and 
besought him to pardon Maximilian. The Princess Salm- 
Salm rode 120 miles across country, and on her knees im- 
plored Juarez to spare his life. He refused to annul the order. 
In connection with the Austrian, Belgian, and Italian Ministers 
and the French Consul, she planned a nocturnal flight from 
the convent. This plan failed. Maximilian's counsel went to 
President Juarez at San Luis Potosl and urged a commuta- 
tion of the sentence. But as Maximilian himself had, in his 
famous decree of October 3, condemned to death any Mexi- 
can found with arms against the monarchy, Juarez refused 
the plea. He confirmed by telegraph, at 11 a. m., on June 16, 
the death sentence pronounced against Fernando Maximilian 
of Hapsburg. The jailer immediately announced the news to 
the prisoners. 

Shortly after daylight on the morning of June 19, 1867, 
a division composed of 4,000 men marched to the suburb of 
Quer^taro and formed a square at the foot of El Cerro de 
las Campanas — The Hill of the Bells. In their cells in the 
Capuchin Convent three men dressed for the ordeal. 

They had scarcely finished when a soldier opened the 
heavy door and said : / Ya es hora ! — the time has come. Maxi- 
milian, Miramon, and Mejia, accompanied by a Catholic priest, 
Father Soria, stepped into the carriage awaiting them and 
were quickly driven through a silent multitude to the place of 
execution. The carriage reached El Cerro de las Campanas 
at 7.15. Maximilian descended first and was followed by his 
generals, who walked with firm steps. About halfway up the 
hill was an adobe wall, constructed during the siege as a breast- 
work, guarding the more important fortification upon the 
summit — the last point to surrender and where Maximilian 
was captured. In front of this wall the prisoners were stationed 
and the firing-parties told off. The men embraced each other, 
and took a last look at the winsome blue sky of a faultless day. 

Maximilian distributed some gold coins among the soldiers 
who were to shoot him, and in a clear, vibrant voice exclaimed : 
" I die in a just cause, the Independence and Liberty of Mexico. 
I forgive all, and I pray that all may forgive me. May my 
blood flow for the good of my adopted country. / Viva Mexi- 
co!" Miramon uttered a few words. Mejia remained silent. 
It is said that Mejia comforted Maximilian in his last hours 
by assuring him that Carlota had died in Europe. Maxi- 
milian asked as a favor that he might be shot in the body, so 
that when his body was sent to Austria his mother might once 
more look upon his face. 

Maximilian, Miramon, and Mejia fell dead at the first 
volley. A second fire was directed against the body of the 



HISTORY AND RACES 83 

Emperor. It was then placed in a rude coffin and taken to a 
room m the Palacio de Gohierno. The body was there in- 
spected by President Juarez. ^ 

o. The Restored Republic. When Juarez again entered 
the capital on July 15, 1867, after an absence of five years. 
his return signalized the rise of the new Republic and the 
culmination of his own fame. The Constitution of 1857 was 
made once more effective, and the national energies were 
directed toward repairing the waste caused by the long war 
Railways and telegraphs were installed, and the country was 
developed internally. 

Congress reelected Juarez president in Oct., 1871, and he 
took the oath as a constitutional president for the third time 
on iJec. 1. A number of would-be presidents "pronounced" 
against him, but each attempt to return to the old method 
of governing the country by force was promptly squelched. 

Ihe sudden death of Juarez on July 18, 1872, raised Sebas- 
tian Lerdo de Tejada (then president of the Supreme Court 
ot Justice) to the presidency. During his three years' tenure 
of office several articles were added to the Constitution; 
one m particular suppressing the last remaining religious 
order — the Sisters of Charity. The government under 
lejada was unpopular with the people, and a remedy was pro- 
vided in the revolt headed by General Porfirio Diaz in 1876. 
The new revolution, which soon plunged the entire country 
mto another civil war, had for its base the Plan de Tux- 
tepee, promulgated in Oaxaca, Jan. 15. It was the most signi- 
ncant of all the revolutions to date, since it gave Mexico 
Its greatest ruler. Under the command of General Diaz the 
revolutionary army carried out an energetic and successful 
campaign. Tej ada fled to the United States, and General 

r.1- T^^ ^??y °1*^^ unfortunate Emperor now lies in the "Austrian Im- 
«H^lL7-''^^i° *f ^ Capuchin Church at Vienna. The Prince was a rear- 
admiral in the Austrian Navy and before his ill-starred expedition to 
fJ^ff.V^^^'"^^^ ^.^f sacrificed to the perfidy of Napoleon III, he resided 
in Trieste ma beautiful chateau called Miramar. In the Piazza Giuseppe, 
m rrieste, stands a fine bronze monument (by Schilling), erected in 1875 
plr^'^n'^TM ^- ^^^f^«^me°^ ^^j^^ ^r« '^""^d in the Pantedn de San 
F^?.rl« P^ w ^^ • ^it^^T^^^""^ fi% S°°^ paintings of MaximiUan and the 
impress Carlota m the National Museum at Mex City 

The student should consult History of Mexico, by Hubert Howe Ban- 
jul RfiT^inHfH^"'?^' \888) . vol. vi. pp. 31 8 et seq. - My Diary^nMeStco 
tnlS67, including the Last Days of the Emperor Maximilian, with Leaves 
don^f^^'VifA^ Princess Salm-Salm. by Felix Salm-Salm Lon! 
fh^W^^fjZr^i f ^«^"^H''^'? h^'^i^ Emperor of Mexico, with a sketch of 
isdsXf/. f«fi7^K;''^^'"^^^"^^^^il^' .^^^ York, 1868. -Mejico desde 
itf^-rifl ■ 1867. by Francisco de P. Arrangoiz, Mexico, 1872 (a good 
historical picture.of the Second Empire). - Resena Historica delaFor- 
ZITZ y,<^P^'-(''^o^^f. d^ Cuervo de Ejercito del Norte durante la Inter- 
hTmZL^i?'^^''' '^d'' "^^ QneretaroyNoticias Oficiales sobre la captura 
Me^Po T«fi7''''' r, ^'"°'!^'° l''^'^'' y *o" ^^^^^«' by Juan de Dios Arias? 
S 'p^-^'^-~^"^"'^'^",¥^^?^^a1861-1867, by L. Le Saint, Paris 



84 HISTORY AND RACES 

Diaz entered Mexico City Nov. 24, 1876, and was proclaimed 
Provisional President. The following April, Congress form- 
ally decreed that he be Constitutional President for a term 
ending in Nov., 1880. A strong man was now at the head of the 
government. Diplomatic relations with France were resumed ; 
railway construction was pushed; incipient revolutions were 
killed in their cradle, and the nation was led gently but firmly 
into the path of peace and progress. 

In 1880, the term for which Diaz had been elected expired, 
and albeit many of his great plans for the regeneration of the 
country were still in embryo, he steadfastly adhered to his 
purpose of abiding by the constitutional provision that ren- 
dered him ineligible for a succeeding term. The moral worth 
of the man had perhaps never been subjected to a severer test. 

On Sept. 25, 1880, General Don Manuel Gonzalez was 
legally elected the successor of the retiring president. The 
high principles of Diaz were beyond the grasp of the new 
president, whose reign was characterized by riots, and similar 
manifestations of the popular discontent. In 1883, the " nickel 
riots " came near to ending the Gonzalez administration, as 
did likewise the proposal of a very unpopular plan for liqui- 
dating Mexico's English debt. The admirable administration 
of Porfirio Diaz had elevated the nation to a higher moral 
plane than it had occupied hitherto; the dormant national 
conscience had been awakened, and the Mexicans, for the 
first time in many years, had acquired an interest in their 
reputation at home and abroad. A new element had been 
introduced into national affairs. So deep and so lasting was 
the impression made by this greatest Mexican that the people 
refrained from ousting Gonzalez: biding their tirne, they 
shelved their grievances, and patiently waited until events 
should once more place Diaz at the head of the nation. 

This occurred in 1884, when General Diaz was, with prac- 
tical unanimity, reelected. His second term was soon marked 
by financial reforms which aided to repair the large deficit 
left by the Gonzalez administration. The credit of the nation 
was soon recognized by all the exchanges of Europe. Im- 
mense sums were spent on public improvements ; free schools 
were organized; education became compulsory, and the 
alcdbales, or local state duties — a long-surviving and perni- 
cious relic of Spanish colonial days — were abolished, The 
drainage canal — that colossal project which had puzzled the 
minds of Mexico's rulers since the 14th century — was un- 
dertaken and carried to successful completion. The solving of 
this great problem alone was of incalculable benefit to the 
inhabitants of the Valley of Mexico. 

Diaz also instituted other wholesome reforms : he reduced 
the president's salary from $30,000 to $15,000, and ordered a 
reduction of from 15 to 20 % in the salaries of many govern- 



HISTORY AND RACES 85 

ment employees. The matter of reorganizing the army was 
handled with consummate skill; ere long the country was rid 
of the bandidos which had formerly infested the highways, 
and the most prominent bandit chiefs not only became stanch 
supporters of the Government, but zealous exterminators of 
their own kind as well. Transcendental results were attained 
in the stimulus given to education. In 1888, the Constitution 
was, by popular acclamation, amended to allow a president 
two consecutive terms. As the now thoroughly aroused na- 
tion began to fear that it might lose its famous leader, all 
limitations were abolished (in 1892), and as no single man 
in the Republic was found to embody the remarkable wisdom 
and statesmanship of Porfirio Diaz, this Greatest Mexican 
succeeded himself in the presidency with a lack of friction 
that would have amazed the older political agitators. This 
great man possessed the wisdom and the statesmanship, the 
strong arm and the steadfast purpose, necessary to weld the 
warring factions, to reconcile the antagonistic parties, and to 
lift Mexico from retrogressive chaos and launch it on a career 
of unexampled prosperity. Under his wise and far-seeing 
administration the country advanced from a position of a 
nondescript Latin- American Republic — not unfrequently a 
synonym for revolutions — to that of one of the progressive 
nations of the world. The Mexico of Diaz was orderly, pro- 
gressive and respected. Its credit was of the highest. 

Poriirlo Diaz was born in Oaxaca City, Sept. 15, 1 830. His father was 
of Spanish parentage; his mother was a Mestiza (of a Spanish Astunan 
father and a pure-bred Mixtec Indian), and both were poor and humble. 
At an early age Porfirio showed such marked characteristics that they 
attracted the attention of Benito Juarez, then Governor of the State of 
Oaxaca, who later instilled into him many admirable quahties. The lad 
took to things military just as did the young Napoleon. Reserved, stu- 
dious brave, and wise, he soon became noted for a fervid patriotism, rare 
executive ability, and an unalterable will. A captain m the army at 32, 
his bravery soon obtained for him the title of General, and ere long he 
became a prominent figure in the military life of the Republic. From his 
second election to the presidency in 1884, his fame, separated from sp^- 
tacular military exploits, began to acquire a solid and enduring form. Me 
Is the wisest and most beneficent ruler Mexico has ever had. Few men are 
more patriotic, few more far-seeing and more self-sacrificmg, and few 
Indeed are more beloved. No words can add to, or detract from, his fame, 
which is as enduring as the hills. _ , , „ „ ,x /a rr 

Consult Life of Porfirio Diaz, by Hubert Howe Bancroft (San Fran- 
cisco 1887), Porfirio Diaz, by Mrs. A. Tweedie (London, 1907), Porfirio 
Diaz' La Evolucion de su Vida, by Licenciado Rafael de Zayas Enriquez 

Slew York, 1908), Un Pueblo, un Siglo y un Hombre, by Dr. Fortunate 
ernandez (Mexico, 1909), Porfirio Diaz, by Jos6 F. Godoy (New York, 
1910). 



86 CHIEF EVENTS IN MEXICAN HISTORY 

Chronological Table of the Chief Events in Mexican 

History. 

I. From the Earliest Times to the Spanish Gonqiiiest. 

7th Cent. The Toltecs, advancing from a northerly direction, 
entered the territory of Anahuac at the close of the 
Seventh Century. 

1100. The Toltecs, who had extended their sway over the 
remotest borders of Andhuac, disappeared from the 
land as silently and as mysteriously as they had en- 
tered it. 

1200. A numerous and rude tribe, called the Chichimecs, 
entered the deserted country from the far North- 
west. 

1200-1300. Other races, of a higher civilization, followed the 
Chichimecs and reached the country from the North. 
The most noted of these were the Aztecs, or Mexicans. 

1325. The Mexicans establish themselves in the Valley of 
And,huac and call their settlement Tenochtitldn. 

1485. Hernan Cort6s is born at Medellin, Estremadura, Spain. 

1492. Christopher Columbus discovers America. 

1502. Montezuma II is raised to the Aztec throne. 

1504. Hernan Cortes sails for Cuba. 

1517. Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, in the course of a 
voyage of adventure from Cuba, discovers the coast 
of Yucatan, March 4. 

II. The Spanish Invasion and the Downfall of the Aztec Empire. 

1519. Cortes sails from Havana Feb. 10, lands at Tabasco 
(or Grijalva) March 20, at Vera Cruz April 21, begins 
his march to the Aztec metropolis Aug. 16, enters 
Tlaxcala Sept. 23, and Tenochtitlan Nov. 8. 

1520. Montezuma dies June 20. The Spaniards evacuate 
Tenochtitlan on the night {Noche Triste) of July 1. 

1521. Cortes lays siege to Tenochtitlan, which is subjugated 
Aug. 13. 

III. Mexico under the Spanish Viceroys. 

1522. Cortes is Governor, Captain-General, and Chief Justice 
of the conquered territories of New Spain. The first 
Catholic church established in Mexico is founded at 
Tlaxcala. 

1524. Consejo (council) de las Indias perfected by the King 
of Spain. Arrival in Mexico of the Franciscan Friars 
known as the Twelve Apostles. 

1527. Bishopric of Mexico created. The first Bishop, Juan 
de Zumd,rraga, collects the picture-paintings, writings 
and historical MSS. of the Indians from the great de- 



CHIEF EVENTS IN MEXICAN HISTORY 87 

pository of the national archives at Tezcuco, and from 
other sources, assembles them in the market-place of 
Tlaltelolco, and bums them. Bigotry thus destroys the 
priceless annals of the first Americans. 

1531. Alleged miraculous apparition of the Virgin of Guada- 
lupe in Mexico. 

1547. Death of Hernando Cortes, at Castilleja de la Cuesta, 
Spain, Dec. 2, in the 63d year of his age. 

1571. The Tribunal of the Inquisition is formally established 
in the City of Mexico. 

1691. Conquest of Texas. 

1693. First newspaper established in New Spain. 

1767. The Jesuits are expelled from Spanish Ajmerica. 

1806. Benito Pablo Juarez born March 21. 

1808. Intervention of Napoleon Bonaparte in Spanish affairs. 
Revolution in Spain. The idea of Mexican independ- 
ence germinates. 

IV. Beginning of the Mexican War for Independence. 

1810. The Parish Priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, fugleman 
of Mexican freedom, sounds the "Grito de Dolores" 
(Sept. 16) and the death-knell of Spanish misrule in 
Mexico. 

1811. Hidalgo captured and shot. 

1813. First Mexican Congress meets at Chilpancingo Sept. 
14. Formal Declaration of Mex. Independence Nov. 6. 

1814. First Constitution at Apatzingan, Oct. 22. 

1820. Inquisition suppressed in Mexico, May 31. 

V. Independent Mexico. Tbe First Empire. 

1821. Mexico wins Independence from Spain. 

1822. First Mexican Congress. Regency installed. 
Agustin de Iturbide named Emperor, May 19. Antonio 
Lopez de Santa Anna proclaims a republic. 

V. Collapse of the First Empire. Rise of the Mexican Republic. 

1823. Iturbide abdicates ; the empire falls into ruins. Central- 
ist and Federahst parties formed. The Monroe Doc- 
trine (of transcendental interest to Mexico) proclaimed 
by the United States. Iturbide shot at Padilla, July 14. 

1824. Federal Constitution proclaimed. Estados Unidos 
Mexicanos organized. 

1825. The Spanish troops evacuate El Castillo de San Juan 
de Ulua. Extinction of Spain's power in Mexico. 

1830. Porfirio Diaz, the Greatest Mexican, born Sept. 15. 
1835. Rebellion of Texas. 



88 CHIEF EVENTS IN MEXICAN HISTORY 

1843. Bases Orgdnicas Politicas de la Repilhlica Mexicana 

and final Centralization of the Government. 
1845. Annexation of Texas to the United States. 



Vn. The War with the United States. 

1846. Advance of the American General Taylor to Monterey. 
California and New Mexico taken by the United States. 
Monterey (Mexico) stormed and captured. 

1847. Battle of Buena Vista, Feb. 23, Chihuahua occupied 
Feb. 28. 

General Scott entered the Valley of Mexico Aug. 9. 
Battle of Churubusco, Aug. 20. Battle of " Casa Mata " 
and "Molino del Rey," Sept. 8. Chapultepec stormed 
and captured Sept. 13. Entry of American Army into 
the capital Sept. 15. 

1848. Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (Feb. 2) ends war with 
the United States. 

1856. President Comonfort issued (June 25) decree of desor- 
mortizaddn ordering the sale, at its assessed value, of 
all landed estate held by the Church. 

1859. Benito Juarez proclaims (July 12) the Reform Laws. 



vm. The French Intervention. 

1861. Treaty of London (Oct. 31) adopted by England, 
France, and Spain. Their forces arrive in Vera Cruz 
to carry out provisions of the treaty. 

1862. Treaty of London dissolved. England and Spain with- 
draw from Mexico, French Army advances and ia 
defeated at Puebla in famous battle of Cinco de Mayo. 
Suppression of religious orders in Mexico. 

1863. French troops capture Puebla and advance on the 
capital. The Republican Government retires to San 
Luis Potosf, thence to Saltillo, and later to Monterey. 
The French organize a government at the capital and 
elect Maximilian of Hapsburg Emperor of Mexico. 



IZ. The Second Empire. Mexico nnder the Austrian Archduke 
MaxlmlUan. 

1864. Maximilian reaches Mexico and is crowned June 12 
as Emperor of Mexico. 

1865. The United States Government demands the with- 
drawal of French troops from Mexico. 

1866. The Juarez Government returns to Chihuahua. 

1867. The French troops are withdrawn from Mexico in Feb. 
General Porfirio Diaz captures Puebla April 2. 



CHIEF EVENTS IN MEXICAN HISTORY 89 

X. DowDlaU of the Second Empire. Modem Mexico. 

1867. Maximilian surrenders May 15 to General Escobedo, 
at Quer^taro. Execution, on June 19, of Maximilian 
and Generals Mejia and Miramon, at Quer^taro. 
General Porfirio Diaz takes the City of Mexico June 21. 

1876. General Porfirio Diaz enters Mexico City (Nov. 24) at 
the head of a revolutionary army and is proclaimed 
Provisional President. 

1877. Porfirio Diaz is elected Constitutional President. 
1884. Porfirio Diaz is again made President. 

1888. Porfirio Diaz is again made President. 

1892. Porfirio Diaz is again made President. 

1896. Porfirio Diaz is again made President. 

1900. Porfirio Diaz is again made President. 

The great canal for draining the Valley of Mexico is 
completed at a cost of sixteen millions of pesos. 

1904. Porfirio Diaz is again made President. 

Guided by the strong hand of Porfirio Diaz, the 
greatest Mexican, the United Mexican States join 
the rank of great nations. 

1906. Establishment of the gold standard. 

Great influx of foreigners and foreign capital. 
The Diaz Government inspires confidence, revolutions 
are things of the past, and $800,000,000 of foreign 
capital comes to Mexico. 

1907. The national revenues exceed the expenditures by 
twenty-nine millions of pesos. 

1908. A shrewd financial plan, conceived by Jos^ Yvez 
Limantour, Mexico's greatest Minister of Finance, 
places the vast Mexican Central Railway System 
under Government control ; the lines are merged with 
the Mexican National System under the title of Los 
Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico. 

1909. Unexampled prosperity marks the Diaz administration. 

1910. Porfirio Diaz, though in his 80th year, is again elected 
President by an overwhelming majority. 

In September the nation celebrates, with great splen- 
dor, the 100th anniversary of its independence. 
The Mexican Southern Railway is absorbed by the 
National Railways of Mexico. 

1911. A revolution, organized by Francisco Madero, causes 
the resignation of Porfirio Diaz as President. Civil war 
breaks out. Mexico is crippled in her march toward 
civilization. 

1913. Death of Madero. Victoriano Huerta is made Con- 
, stitutional President. 

1914. Civil war rages in many parts of the Republic. Com- 
plications with the United States. 



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